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Henry Horace Webster 



THE TYPICAL 
<< YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION" 

■MAN 



"The Story of a Busy Life for Busy Men," 



/BY 

JASPER VAN VLECK, 

Author of '■ The Use and Abuse of Athletic Si^orts," etc. 



WITH PREFATORY NOTE BY CEPHAS BRAINERD, ESQ. 



" jy Webster in'oitld ivoyk ivitli but Jialf tJie zeal for Jiis oiun interest with 
luhich he works for the good of others, no htanan power cotild prevent him froj7i 
becoming a great iiian.^' — Extract frojii letter to Mrs. Webster by a classmate 
of Webster's. 



lO?>> 



CHICAGO, ILL. 

THE YOUNG MEN'S ERA PUBI.ISHING CO. 
1893. 









Entered According to Act of Congress in tlie year 1893, 

By jasper van VLECK, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



[All rights reserved-l 



PREFACE. 

One evening in August, 1891, a company of gen- 
tlemen were dining together in New York, They 
had met, as the Board of Managers of the Twenty- 
third Street Branch of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, to tender a complimentary and fare- 
well dinner to their retiring secretary, Mr. James 
McConaughy. 

The evening was a most agreeable one, for those 
present were old fellow-workers in Christian Asso- 
ciation fields, and story and incident had crowded 
fast upon one another. Yet, underneath all their 
visible mirth, there had run an undercurrent of sad- 
ness, for they were to lose their secretary, whom 
they all loved. Then, too, there was another cause 
for this quiet strain of sadness: we missed a familiar 
face, a cheery voice, the form of one who was 
almost always present at our meetings. 

Our guest at the close of a speech spoke of 
Henry H. Webster, and the great loss we had 
suffered in his death. ''It is not too much to say, 
gentlemen," he continued, ''that with the death of 
Mr. Webster, our association has met with a loss 
that is well nigh irreparable. I think I have felt his 
absence more this summer than at any other time 
since he left us. During June, July and August so 



PKEFACE. 

many of our workers go away, as to seriously incon- 
venience our committees. Not so, howev^er, with 
Mr. Webster. He was always on hand, and the go- 
ing away of so many, only seemed to stimulate him 
to greater exertion. Now, I have been thinking, 
lately, a good deal about him, his unselfishness, his 
constancy, his supreme desire to be always working 
for the Master, and it seems to me that such a life 
as his should not be permitted to pass unrecorded. 
Young men like Mr. Webster are scarce; we do not 
often meet with them. It has struck me that if 
some one among us were to collect the simple facts 
of his life and publish them, it would do a great 
deal of good. I think that many young men would 
read such a book and be greatly helped thereby." 

In response to the suggestion of Mr. McConaughy, 
concerted action was speedily taken toward the 
publication of the life of Mr. Webster. His friends, 
many and warm, responded gladly to the appeal 
for facts and incidents in his life, and the result of 
their contributions is the present volume. 

Among those who so kindly contributed, there 
may be mentioned the following gentlemen: Messrs. 
Robert R. McBurney, Richard C. Morse, Cleveland 
H. Dodge, Mornay Williams, Cephas Brainerd, Jr., 
of New York City; Prof. Edsall Ferrier, Easton, Pa.; 
Rev. Wm. R. Collins, Philadelphia, Pa.; Arthur G. 
Merriam, Springfield, Mass.; James McConaughy, 
Northfield, Mass.; and John Nicol and C. C. Fulton, 
Mauch Chunk, Pa. 

New York City, 1892. Jasper van Vleck. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

The writer of the following sketch of the life of 
Henry Horace Webster requests from me something 
by way of introduction to his narrative, I think 
from the material at his command, Mr. van Vleck 
has drawn, with sympathetic and loving hand, as 
complete a picture of Mr. Webster as can well be 
produced, when it is considered how short a period 
he had for service, and the character of the service 
which he rendered. 

Mr. Webster made no attempts in any of the lines 
usually adopted by college graduates; he did not 
seek literary fame; he did not aim for wealth; he 
did not aspire to social distinction, nor did he seek 
political influence or professional renown. The reader 
of Mr. van Vleck's sketch will findthat Websterseems 
to have possessed but one ambition, and that was to 
accomplish within the sphere of his influence, within, 
the range of his capacity and power, the most 
of good possible to the persons with whom he might 
come in contact from day to day. And so, there- 
fore, he sought two things; first, access to the larg- 
est number of persons the most in need of the in- 
fluence which he desired to exert; and secondly, to 
acquire those qualities and that knowledge which 
would make him thoroughly effective. To these 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



things he gave himself without stint, regardless 
of considerations personal to himself, and per- 
haps not always in the exercise of the greatest 
wisdom, for many of his friends feel that he would 
have accomplished more had he addressed himself 
to a broader range of study and investigation 
than that which he adopted; that he would have 
lived longer and secured larger results had he con- 
fined himself less strictly to the fields of service 
which he one after the other selected. This ques- 
tion, however, cannot be decided; he may have been 
wise; others may not be wise in their present judg- 
ment. At any rate, this is true; he was satisfied with 
his choice. 

In his work in his college; in his work after gradu- 
ation; in his work in the New York Young Men's 
Christian Association, there was always the one 
single object before Webster. He aimed, in his 
dealings with men, to produce the highest and the 
completest of reforms; he was not content with 
good resolves; he was not content with good talk; 
he was not content with promises; he was content 
with nothing short of the consecration of the entire 
man to the one Savior and to the promotion of His 
cause. He believed that nothing save this radi- 
cal reform was reform at all. He sought to secure 
this result, not by rhetorical effort in meetings, 
larger or smaller, not by sentimental suggestions, 
but by a plain, manly and sincere presentation of 
the truth as disclosed in the Bible. Those who 
heard him in public speech, those who heard him in 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

his dealing with individual men, those who witnessed 
his efforts of any sort or kind, know this very well, 
and none know it better than those who accepted 
his leadership and became, like him, followers of 
the Lord. 

He was to me the best living illustration of the 
doctrine of that wonderful sermon by Cardinal New- 
man, entitled, " Personal influence the means of pro- 
pagating the truth" (the fifth of his University 
Sermons), a sermon so striking in the breadth of its 
teaching, as well as in its beauty, that it is often re- 
ferred to in books treating solely upon secular topics. 
Of this sermon, Mr. Bagehot, after recommending 
it to the attention of his scientific readers, says: 
"They will there see the opinion of a great practical 
leader of men, of one who has led very many where 
they little thought of going, as to the mode in which 
they are to be led; and what he says, put shortly and 
simply, and taken out of his delicate language, is 
but this: 'That men are guided by type, not by 
argument; that some winning instance must be set 
up before them or the sermon will be vain and the 
doctrine will not spread,' * * * and, after all, I can 
but teach the commonplace, that it is the life of the 
teachers which is catching, not their tenets." 

It is very true that, with the progress of years 
upon each of the fields v/ith which Webster was con- 
nected, he became an important leader of men. He 
did not, however, become such a leader because he 
possessed what is ordinarily understood to be the 
quality of command; he never sought, in my judg- 



PKEFATORY NOTE. 

ment, to command; but he became a leader because 
in his life and in his treatment of others, he con- 
formed to the principles and doctrines which he 
•sought by his lips to teach. In other words, his life 
and conduct were in harmony with his words, and 
for that reason he influenced individual men, and 
companies of men. 

Again, he was content to work with the material 
and in the place where he happened to be; his con- 
duct in his college course shows this; his conduct in 
the short time which he spent at the home of his 
parents after graduation, and especially in his con- 
nection with railroad men; his conduct in the asso- 
ciation in New York, not only while he was associ- 
ate secretary, but after he became a member of its 
Committee of Management and of its Board; he did 
always the work, according to the best of his ability, 
that was placed before him. 

So far as I am able to judge, Mr. Webster looked 
upon the Christian work that he performed, and 
which he was fitting himself in that performance to 
do better and upon a more extended field, on a 
larger stage, as constituting his career. I do not 
believe that he looked upon business as any other 
than a subordinate occupation. That he attended to 
business with strictness and care, that he did the 
work in it which his engagements called for faith- 
fully and well, neglecting nothing, is conceded by 
all. He did not, however, aspire, as I think, to great 
business success. Every young man anticipates a 
career, some in j^rofessions, some in business, some 



PREFATORY NOTE. 

in society; Webster selected a life of useful service 
in the elevation of individual men, and especially 
young men. Business was to him but a means for 
his support while working out the things he had set 
for himself. He died at thirty-eight, and few men 
of that age have done as much in the fulfillment of 
their purpose in life as did Henry Webster. 

Francis Horner, who died about the same age, a 
member of the British parliament and the most 
loved man of his party at that time in England, had 
done less toward the rounding out of his career than 
had Henry Webster at the time of his death. That se- 
lected by Hornerinvolved masses of correspondence, 
parliamentary speeches and the like, and his written 
life fills two octavo volumes. That chosen by Web- 
ster contemplated quite another service; it involved 
neither parliamentary speeches, platform efforts, or 
large correspondence; that is to say, the life work of 
Francis Horner contemplated things in a certain gen- 
eral sense earthly, of which earth takes notice, and 
of which earth gladly preserves, so far as earth may, 
a permanent record. The work of Henry Webster 
took hold of things unseen and eternal, of which a 
very inconsiderable record is kept on earth; of which 
earth takes but little notice, and of which it has little 
means for preserving a record That record is 
known only in part even by those most intimate with 
him; they can never know it fully unless at last they 
be with him where he is. But if the service which 
concerns things everlasting is of more value, is 
more enduring, than that which touches only on 



PKEFATOKY NOTE. 

things which are temporal, then is Henry Webster's 
career greater, more enduring and more beneficent 
in its influence than the other. And yet, few can 
rise to the position occupied by Francis Horner at 
the close of his life, but many, if they will seek the 
wisdom which Henry Webster acquired, can rise to 
that which he occupied, and to his present home. 
" And they that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament; and they that turn many to 
righteousness as the stars forever and ever." In this 
lies the appeal which his life makes to young men. 

Every man who really knew Henry Webster is grate- 
ful for what he did; appreciates the breadth and the 
reach of his accomplishment; is satisfied that he 
could not have done better in other lines with the 
faculty and power which he had. Those, however, 
who knew him well regret most profoundly his early 
death, because they saw in the later years of his life 
a development of power, an increase in strength, 
an enlargement of faculty which those who saw 
him in early years, just after graduation, never an- 
ticipated he would exhibit. Indeed, at the time of 
his death, few men of his age promised more future, 
better future, than Henry Webster. Sorrowing as 
they do for the loss of what he was, they sorrow 
most of all for the loss which Christian service suf- 
fered in what Henry Webster might have been. 
Probably no better testimony was ever furnished to 
the power, influence and usefulness of a young busi- 
ness man than that exhibited on the occasion of the 
memorial service in the hall of the New York asso- 



PKEFATOKY NOTE. 

ciation; and it was not so much in the testimonies of 
those who spoke, as furnishing evidence of his great- 
ness and his goodness, as in the attendance of a body of 
men, almost wholly young, filling that large hall to 
the full, who exhibited by their sympathetic interest 
in the service their appreciation of his character and 
their sorrow at his death. 

Webster was to me a dearly loved friend and fel- 
low worker, who grew not old with advancing years, 
who grew not vain with increasing knowledge; who 
grew not conceited with the increase of his power 
with men; who seemed ever able to say as did Stand- 
fast, ** I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and 
wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the 
earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too." 

Cephas Brainerd. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Parentage and Early Life - . .. . i 

II. School and College Days - ■• • • - ii 

III. Princeton's Great Revival of 1876 " "47 

IV. Work Among the Railroad Men • - 78 

V. With the New York Y. M. C. A. - • 99 

VI. The White Cross Movement - - , - 123 

VII. Special Characteristics - - - - 132 
VIII. Closing Days i39 

IX. After Thoughts ------ 145 



CHAPTER I. 

PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 

Before the foot of primeval man trod this conti- 
nent, a beneficent Providence had stored away in the 
bosom of mother earth the materials, which, in the 
process of time, were to become the great coal 
bearing fields of Pennsylvania. 

As time passed by and civilization drifted in from 
the seaboard, this region became sparsely settled; 
some of its nooks, sheltered from the winds by a 
favoring mountain, appealed more forcibly to set- 
tlers, and several gathering there formed a little 
hamlet. Roads, rough in their way, were cut be- 
tween these hamlets and in process of time an inter- 
mittent kind of communication was established 
between them. The discovery of "stone coal," as 
it was called, about 1750, drew to this region a con- 
siderable population. Wherever the black diamond 
was found in paying quantities, there was sure to be 
a little settlement. 

Into this growing community there came in Oc- 
tober, 1835, ^he Rev. Richard Webster, a young 
man only twenty-five years of age, and a recent 
graduate of the Theological Seminary of Princeton, 
N. J. He had been invited to preach at South 



^ HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

Easton, Pennsylvania, at the recommendation of 
the Rev. Dr. McDowell, then secretary of the Board 
of Missions. He expected to preach one Sabbath 
at South Easton, a new village across the Lehigh 
river, and one Sabbath at Mauch Chunk, with a view 
of being permanently settled at Easton. It was at 
Mauch Chunk, however, that he finally settled, 
remaining there until his death. 

Mauch Chunk, proper, was a small settlement at 
this time, composed of the homes of the mine own- 
ers and the mine operatives, a country store or two, 
and a general supply store, dealing chiefly in the 
materials used in the mines. The village consisted 
of a single street laid out on the west bank of the 
Lehigh river at its passage through Mahoning and 
Sharp mountains. The houses were built in a single 
line in the valley, through which flowed the river, 
and the narrowness of the place allowed only the 
most diminutive of gardens. What was lacking in 
space, however, was amply atoned for in beauty, for 
the little plots were gardens indeed, and from early 
spring until late fall blossomed out a mass of color 
and sweetness. The hills rose majestically on every 
side, in some places from seven hundred to one 
thousand feet, sheer up, and the scenery was most 
picturesque. Directly in front of the village, Mt. 
Pisgah reared its lofty head, its slopes wooded so 
thickly as to make progress through them a difificult 
matter. At the foot of Mt. Pisgah, the highest 
peak in the Sharp mountains, the Lehigh river ran, 
pursuing its way quietly, but at times, notably in 



PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. D 

the spring of the year, when swollen by the melting 
snows from the sides of the mountains, it became a 
raging torrent, overflowing its banks and bearing 
destruction in its path. The air was peculiarly cool 
and pure, and the excellence of the water proverbial 

The Rev. Richard Webster, the newly settled 
pastor of this town, brought with him to his work 
great energy, rare intellectual powers and thorough 
preparation for his work. His ancestors came ori- 
ginally from England and were among the first set- 
tlers of the Colony of Connecticut, and it was from 
them that he inherited all those sterling traits of 
character for which the New Englanders are so 
justly celebrated. Very early in life he elected to 
enter the ministry, and all his studies were carried 
on with that end in view. He was educated in his 
native town, Albany; graduated at Union College in 
1829; went to Andover for a short time to study 
theology, and then to Princeton, where he took a 
three years' course in the Theological Seminary 
graduating from there in 1834. 

Mr. Webster was settled over the First Presby- 
terian church of Mauch Chunk as its first pastor in 
1835. into this new life he threw himself with all 
the energy of his nature and in a few years had 
gathered about him a goodly congregation. The 
following year he married a Miss Cross, the daugh- 
ter of a Baltimore merchant, a lady in every way 
worthy to be his helpmeet. 

From this time on, his work among the people 
was constant and his success most wonderful, for all 



^ HP:NJ:IY HORACE WEBSTER. 

with whom ne came in contact learned to love him. 
Being a man of a most catholic spirit, Protestant 
and Romanist alike shared his love and bounty, his 
genial, kindly spirit seeing in every man a brother. 
His charge was a large one, extending in either di- 
rection for twenty miles, and yet he never suffered 
storm or distance to deter him from going where he 
was called, feeling that to relieve suffering or sor- 
row was his duty and pleasure. He knew everyone 
in the mountains, and if perchance he learned of a 
death or an accident in a family, it was sure to 
draw him to the spot. In spite of his excessive la- 
bors among the people he found time to do a large 
amount of literary work, the most notable of which 
is his " History of the Presbyterian Church," pub- 
lished after his death. 

In his home as well as in his church he was greatly 
blessed, and in the love of his wife and family he 
found refreshment and grace for the daily struggle. 
He was very fond of his home, returning to it after 
the pastoral duties of the day with unqualified de- 
light. He entered into the life of his children as 
thoroughly as if he were one of them, encouraging 
them to talk to him of their games, pleasures and 
school; and taking an interest in every little thing 
in which they were interested. In this way he held 
their confidences and was to them an elder brother 
as well as a father. 

For twenty-one years he labored incessantly, at- 
tending not only to the duties of his own church but 
doing a surprising amount of missionary labor in 



PAKENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. O 

the surrounding country. Never very strong, his 
great exertions finally began to tell upon him. 
Death came very suddenly, but found him ready. 
He died surrounded by his family, in the month of 
June, 1856, leaving a wife and six children. At his 
funeral a most touching incident was related of him. 
Rev. Andrew B. Cross, who delivered the address, 
said of the deceased: "He was pre-eminently a 
man of prayer, and one who made it a personal 
matter to pray for his friends and relatives, for every 
kind of people — persons with whom he met — and 
carried these cases before the mercy-seat with an 
earnestness that showed his interest in them, and 
his confidence in God as the hearer of prayer. Why, 
it was said of him that he had privately and person- 
ally prayed for every person that attended upon his 
ministry; and, on the very day he died, he had been 
praying for an opportunity to speak to a man who 
had been neglecting attendance upon public wor- 
ship, which prayer God answered, giving him the 
opportunity before he died." 

At the time of his father's death, Henry Horace 
Webster, the subject of our sketch, was barely over 
two years of age and entirely unable to realize the 
great loss which he had sustained. He was the 
youngest child of the family, and to him on his 
death-bed the love of the dying pastor went out, 
commending him, especially, to the care of the 
Father of the fatherless. 

Believing implicitly in Him in whose care the 
fatherless family had been left, the young w^idow 



C HENKY HOKACE WEBSTEU. 

took up the labor of rearing her children, with a 
strong heart. In this work she was ably assisted by 
the children themselves, and that which in other 
families would have been a difficult task, was in hers 
a comparatively easy one. She ruled with love, 
trying to make her children love the right for right's 
sake. Speaking of these times, the successor of her 
husband in the church at Mauch Chunk, writes to 
one of the children, as follows: 

"5^ 7^ 7^ zf^ Tft ^ 

"You know that I went to Mauch Chunk very 
soon after your father's death, and your brother 
Henry was a very small child, and when I left in 
1865 he was not ten years old. I remember him as 
a sturd}^ round-faced boy, active and fond of play, 
and such a contrast to his more sedate brothers that 
your mother was sometimes apprehensive that his 
natural spirits might hereafter carry him too far. But 
there was no reason to fear. He, from the first, was 
easily controlled by your mother and very early 
adopted her principles, which became afterward so 
characteristic of him. Your mother's faith, strength 
of character, and influence over her children, sur- 
prised me at our first interview. Her sudden be- 
reavement had thrown the whole responsibility 
upon her of the training of her large family. She 
fully realized this, but her faith in God's grace and 
in His covenant with her and her children, sustained 
her. No change was made in the object or method 
of the home discipline. Baptism had not been to 
your parents a mere form, but a real consecration 



TAKENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. i 

of their children to the Lord and therefore the ob- 
ject of home training was the conversion of each 
child, and preparation of him, not for the world, but 
for Christ's service. To accomplish this was your 
mother's prayer and effort. Pleadings of some for 
a laxity of principle or for questionable indulgences 
did not move her. I cannot recollect any restive- 
ness or dissent on the part of her children, for they 
appreciated her motive, had adopted her principles, 
and approved her method. It could not be other- 
wise. With her, religion was the principal thing; 
her daily instruction and example made it intelli- 
gent and attractive and her love commended the 
love of Christ. I have seldom, if ever, seen better 
realized the Christian home and true mother's influ- 
ence. The results are not surprising — the early 
conversion of each child and his consistent, godly 
and useful life. Nothing else would have been pos- 
sible under God's gracious covenant. I delighted 
to watch the effect of your mother's training upon 
little Henry during the eight years I was at Mauch 
Chunk and am sure that he was always ready to ac- 
knowledge what was so true, that all he was and had 
accomplished for Christ, was due, under God, to 
his mother's influence. 'Her children rise up and 

call her blessed.' " 

* * * * ^tt * 

Under the loving care of such a mother, Henry 
lived a happy child's life. Speaking of his very 
early years, it is said of him that he was possessed 
of one of the happiest of dispositions. His mother 



he>;ky hukace avkbstek. 

gave him great freedom, trusting him implicitly, and 
she never had cause to regret so doing. Speaking 
of her brother, his eldest sister says of him, that as 
a child he was the delight of his family and of all 
who came to the house. 

Notwithstanding the fact that Henry was but two 
and a half years old when his father died, yet he re- 
tained a faint remembrance of him. That unselfish, 
devoted life made a deep impression upon him. 
Living in the home so full of precious memories of 
the blessed life and peaceful, triumphant death of 
his father, and in the town where his work and 
memory were held in loving remembrance, that 
impression deepened as the years passed away. 
Often while yet a boy he was wont to exclaim, "If 

1 am only worthy of my father and mother I shall 
be satisfied;" and following out this desire, it was 
his custom, when at home, to repair frequently to 
his father's grave, and, standing there, pray that his 
life, too, might be a blessing to others. 

Great influence for good was exerted on his life at 
this early formative period by his father's friends, 
who frequented his home, and he often spoke in 
later years of the great pleasure and help their 
sympathy in his youthful tastes and plans had been 
to him. Another beneficial influence on his early 
life was his implicit confidence in his mother. To 
her he came for sympathy and guidance in all the 
affairs which went to make up his childish life. 

Henry Webster was a thorough boy, a true boy 
with a bright sunny disposition and perfect health, 



PARENTAGE AND EAKLY LIFE. 



9 



He delighted in all the games and amusements of 
the place. The day was never too long for him. 
The pure air of the mountains was considered by his 
mother better for him than the close school-room, 
so on especially bright days he, with his brothers 
and sisters, was given a holiday. He loved every- 
thing connected with his mountain home and would 
spend hours in climbing and rambling through the 
woods. 

In his home life his mother combined loving 
training and wise care. She made religion attract- 
ive to her children, and Henry learned from her his 
love for pure and holy things. The Sabbath to 
them was a bright and happy day; in the evening 
she gathered her children about her and together 
they repeated chapters of the Bible, hymns and 
the catechism. Henry's favorite hymn at this time 
was : 

'•Sweet is the work, my God, my King, 

To praise thy name, give thanks, and sing, 
To show thy love by morning light 
And talk of all thy truth at night." 

Even at this early day, the lovely traits of his 
character, afterwards so fully developed, were no- 
ticeable. He was the personification of childish un- 
selfishness; no thought of himself ever seemed to 
enter his mind; a pleasure was never perfect unless 
he could share it with others; when he read a book 
his first thought was to lend it, that some one else 
might have the same enjoyment. His pleasure in a 



10 



HENRY HOKACE WEBSTER. 



game or an excursion was doubled if he could but 
have his little sister or one of his- little friends with 
him. 

His early mental training was conducted by his 
mother, and by her hand he was guided until fitted 
to enter the high school of Mauch Chunk. As a 
child and boy he was never a close student, but he 
was a keen observer of all passing around him. 
From his father he inherited a most retentive mem- 
ory, a wonderful faculty for remembering not 
merely the names and faces of the persons he met, 
but the circumstances and interests connected with 
them. He took a genuine interest in all whom he 
knew, and it was that kind remembrance and quick 
sympathy which endeared him to so many. While 
yet a boy he became known to all in his native 
town. He was greatly interested in railroad mat- 
ters, the shops of the Lehigh Valley road being sit- 
uated in Mauch Chunk. He knew' the railroad men 
not only by name, but could tell the names and 
numbers of the different engines, and the names of 
each individual "crew." As a train chanced to pass, 
he would wave his hand to the men in the cab, and 
salute them with some words of friendly greeting. 
He always retained a warm interest in the people of 
the town, notwithstanding the fact that he left it 
when little more than a boy. 



CHAPTER 11. 

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 

Henry Horace Webster was pre-eminently a 
mountain-boy. Born amidst the picturesque ranges 
of Pennsylvania, as he grew in years, he grew, in 
the pure air of the hills, strong and rugged in body 
and mind. Alert, active, energetic in temperament, 
his healthy and overflowing spirits exulted in his 
natural surroundings, and whether it was the gently 
flowing river, hard by his home, or the blue mountain 
peaks, seeming to meet the heavens in the distance, 
one and all seemed to elevate and incite him to high 
and pure living and thinking. He was familiar with 
every road, pass, or peak connected with these hills 
that surrounded his home. The wild flowers of 
the section were his special love. No dell was too 
dark or secluded and no nook too well hidden to 
keep from him the shy flowers growing therein. 
True to the earliest of his impulses, which led him 
to share each of his pleasures with others, he was 
never alone on any one of these mountain rambles, 
but was always accompanied by some one of his 
youthful friends. His most frequent companion 
was his youngest sister, who, with a favored girl 
friend, roamed with him over all the hills and valleys 



12 HENEY HOKACE AVEBSTER. 

surrounding Mauch Chunk. ]\Ian\- of the long, 
sunny, spring days were spent by this trio in gath- 
ering wild flowers, of which occupation Henry never 
seemed to tire. It was his keen eye which usually 
spied out a "patch" of flowers, or a particularly 
good bush of berries, and this only that his young 
companions might do the reaping. He loved flow- 
ers; they were all beautiful creations to him. even 
as a child. If, however, he had any partiality, it was 
for the arbutus and the wild laurel. 

He entered the high school of his native town in 
his teens, fresh from his mother's careful teaching. 
From the very outset, his influence on the boys of 
the school was most marked. It has often been re- 
marked that the result of the introduction of a bad 
boy into a school is to the injur}-, in a greater or 
lesser degree, of ever}- bo}- being educated therein. 
The baneful influence of such a bo}- can not be esti- 
mated. The same fact holds true in regard to a 
thoroughl}- good, strong, healthy boy. with staunch 
principles and a high sense of honor. Bo}-s are 
keen judges of their companions, and are quick to 
perceive 'whether such a one is a sneak and a hypo- 
crite, or a thorough going believer in the principles 
which he professes. And down deep in their hearts, 
they often hold the strongest kind of an attachment 
for the bov who has the couragre of his convictions. 
This was the case, particularly, with Henry Webster. 
His schoolmates found him a keen lover of sports, 
a good all-around player, and withal a thorough 
gentleman. He was the originator of all the fun worth 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. IB 

having, and entered into it himself with keen relish. 
He suffered no impurity, no profanity to have a 
place amongst them. His rule in this respect was 
autocratic — he simply would have none of it. 

At this period of his life there were many wretched 
Irish cabins or rather hovels, situated not far from 
his house, the homes of the poor men who found 
work in and around the mines. They readily obtained 
employment, for which they were well paid, but 
owing to their intemperate habits, were usually in a 
most impoverished condition. The wives of these 
poor men were naturally careless and thriftless, and 
the little children ragged, dirty and often hungry. 
Henry Webster was too young to perceive the in- 
consistency of a government, which with one hand 
gave a license to self poison and then with the other 
formulated laws to punish the poor wretch who 
committed a crime when maddened with drink. He 
only saw the wretchedness and misery of these poor 
people and his kind heart bled for the innocent little 
children. Time and again he was moved to help 
them and he would have shared anything of his 
own Vv^ith them in order to alleviate their distress. 
Often in returning from school or his sports, he 
would find some poor child, sitting outside the 
hovel of his parents, cold and hungry, yet afraid to 
enter and face a drunken father and mother. This 
spectacle always moved him deeply, and he would 
enter his home hot with indignation and with eyes 
filled with tears. Naturally a thoughtful boy, in 
view of such sad sights he early began to consider 



14 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

the means of preventing such wretchedness. In his 
thirteenth year he became a member of a temper- 
ance society, or, as he expresses it, the Society of 
the Sons of Temperance. With the work of this 
body he was in most cordial sympathy and entered 
into it heart and soul. The influence of his work 
here had a most marked effect upon his life, deep- 
ening and broadening it, throwing him into fellow- 
ship with older minds and preparing him for the 
greater duties of the years to come. He continued 
an active worker for more than a year, and then, 
having mastered, thoroughly, its routine and plan of 
action, with his characteristic desire to share every 
good thing of his own, he organized a few of the 
boys of the town into a "section " of the society, 
giving it the name of the " Cadets of Temperance." 
Beginning with ten members, they set bravely to 
work to recruit, and so well did they succeed, that, 
in about a year's time, they had fifty-nine names en- 
rolled. At its inception Henry Webster was elected 
presiding ofHcer and later Worthy Archon, an ofifice 
he held for several terms. To the work of this so- 
ciety, he gave up all his spare time; no detail was 
too small, no exertion too great for him, if only he 
could make the meetings attractive to the boys and 
hold them to their pledge. This was no easy mat- 
ter, for in a town like Mauch Chunk, one half of 
whose inhabitants were rough miners, there would 
be many who would endeavor to thwart this tall, 
frank boy in his work, and strive to kill a society 
whose sole bond of union was hostilitv to the 



SCHOOL AND COLLEG-E DAYS. 15 

saloon. Occasionally young roughs would come t3 
the meetings, ostensibly to view the work, but in 
reality to disturb the audience. In his diary Henr)- 
Webster jots down a few brief words relating to 
these troubles. He finds, to his regret, that some of 
the members are only "dead branches," as he ex- 
presses it, and he goes on to say how much injury 
such ones do the whole body. Then, a little lower 
down on the page of his diary, we find him express- 
ing the hope that " will be around tonight so 

as to nab some of the roughs," who came to the 
meeting only to create a disturbance. But, in spite 
of such discouragements, he went cheerfully on with 
his work. He devoted much of his time to drilling 
the ''section," and putting them through certain 
military evolutions. The boys entered into this, 
evidently, with enthusiasm, for it was not long ere 
we find them grown so proficient in their marches 
and counter-marches, as to be in demand at parades 
and the like, not only in Mauch Chunk, but in 
neighboring towns. In glancing over his work 
among the cadets one cannot fail to be impressed 
with the earnestness of the boy, with his unwearied 
energy and devotion to the cause of the Master 
whom he served, and the conviction is forced upon 
us that his love was no ordinary love, that the Spirit 
of God dwelt in him in no slight degree. His 
delight in everything pertaining to his Master, his 
love for the Sabbath, for the preached Word, prove 
this, and whatsoever he found to do for his Master 
he did it with his might. He strove to grow, too. 



16 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

in spiritual grace and to that end was constant in his 
attendance at church. He gave close attention to 
the preached Word and we find him keeping a care 
ful record of the texts of the sermons heard by him. 
At this time young Webster was a strong, healthy 
boy of fourteen, fond of sports, entering into them 
with great zest, and yet all this energy and love of 
play was tempered by principle and consecrated to 
Christ. 

The three succeeding years were spent by him in 
study at the high school of Mauch Chunk and in 
laboring to perfect the organization of the Cadets 
of Temperance. In the spring of 1870 he finished 
his course at the high school, and the following 
autumn entered a classical school at Princeton, N. 
J., preparatory to entering Princeton College. 

In January, 1871, and while home on his Christmas 
holiday vacation, Henry Webster made a public 
profession of his faith in Christ, joining the Presby- 
terian church of Mauch Chunk, the church organ- 
ized by his father, and under his care to the time 
of his death. He retained his membership in that 
church always, never removing his name from its 
roll, saying that no oth^r church could be so dear 
to him as the one his father had ministered to for 
so many years. Then, too, he was fond of the 
Presbyterian form of service, its simplicity and 
solemnity suiting his ideas of worship. The history 
and doctrines of the church were especially dear to 
him and he became deeply interested in all the de- 
partments of its work, following with special pleas- 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 17 

ure all its active and ever growing missionary opera- 
tions. "Ah," he would often exclaim, after talking 
over its glorious history and present splendid ad- 
vance, "Ah, it's the bonny kirk!" Yet, in spite of 
this strong love for the Presbyterian Church, he was 
never narrow, never bigoted, but, like his sainted 
father, while loyally and intelligently devoted to his 
church, was liberal and tolerant of the creeds of 
others. 

At this period, the promises of his early days be- 
gan to be redeemed and at seventeen years of age 
he was living a beautiful Christian life. He endeav- 
ored to realize the high ideal set before him by his 
Master and took for his daily text this verse, which he 
carefully marked in his Testament: "Wherefore 
also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, 
to be well pleasing to Him," 2 Cor. v, 9. To this 
end his life became pre-eminently a life of prayer. 
Prayer with him was ever the "lovely habit of his 
soul," and even the smallest plan was made the sub- 
ject of prayer ere it was undertaken. It is related 
of him that he never even made a call upon a friend 
without first spending a few moments in prayer. 
Even when at home he would often go from the 
family circle to his room for a few minutes, and 
return with his face shining from communion with 
God. The salvation of his friends was a matter very 
near to his heart, and he always had some one in 
whom he was particularly interested and for whom 
he made especial prayer. He was wont to talk with 
his Master freely and fully, calling his friends by 



18 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

name, reciting the difficulties of their conversion 
and asking Him to remove these hindrances so that 
they might come to Him. He was happy in this 
his work for Christ, and in his own personal experi- 
ence, his faith was strong, his hope clear and his 
love warm and ardent. 

He completed his course in the preparatory 
school at Princeton and in the fall of 1872 entered 
the freshman class of the college. His first year, 
here, differed materially from the average "fresh," 
for his change was only in name and not in locality. 
He lacked that sense of helplessness and newness 
so apparent in the fourth class college student, for 
his tw^o years course in the preparatory school had 
made him familiar with the town and the surround- 
ings of Princeton and in a measure with the college 
and its buildings. Pie entered at once into the new 
order of things, took pains to make himself familiar 
w^ith the details of his college work, settled himself 
in his quarters for four years' stay and then set 
about making the acquaintance of his classmates. 
His first year, as he states, passed quickly and 
pleasantly. He busies himself with his studies, 
keeps up a frequent communication with his home, 
and tells his family in his letters what a fine set of 
fellows he finds his classmates to be. Some of 
these letters to his family during his course at col- 
lege have been preserved, fortunately, and they 
show us in a degree the life he led there. Thus in 
one written during his freshman year, true to his 
instinct to seek his Master's work first of all, he 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 19 

tells us that he "finds no special religious interest 
in college at present, but the meetings are well at- 
tended and generally interesting." Toward the latter 
part of this letter he speaks of the *'ZzV," meaning the 
paper published by the students of the college. He 
says: "It has been unusually good this year, but it 
does not really fill the want felt. It is not very new to 
read the commencement news in the November 
number. It has 279 subscribers. Dr. Duryea of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., delivers lectures, or rather talks, to 
seminoles on music as a means of worship. He has 
been here twice and I have attended. Last night 
he said the hymns should not be chosen with refer- 
ence to the text and thus sing the sermon over 
three times. I would like to see the hymns he uses 
and anxiously await the new hymn book. He does 
not believe much in Sunday school music and says 
the children learn hymns (?) and tunes there that 
can not be used elsewhere, i. e., in the church. 
They ought to sing the same hymns they do in the 

church (says Dr. D )". It is evident from the tone 

of these lines that he did not agree with Dr. Duryea. 
Henry returned from his summer vacation and 
began his sophomore year with a new relish. He 
was better pleased with it and its order of 
studies than he was with the freshman year. Let- 
ters which he wrote to his family at this time are 
most interesting. As they throw such a strong 
light on his life and manner of living, it seems best 
to insert them at this place. They are all to his 
family, beginning with his sister Martha: 



20 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



26 North College, 
Princeton, N. J., September 22, 1873. 
My Dear Sister: — 

To you is addressed my first letter in sophomore 
year. I never was in better spirits. Our time is so 
differently arranged from freshman year, lectures 
are a new feature and we find them a very nice 
change from our old run of Latin, Greek and mathe- 
matics. The new fellows are splendid as far as I 
have met them. * * * The fresh class is very 
large and is composed of a fine set of fellows. 

The cane spree came off last Thursday night. 
Duff, I and a host of others could find no one to 
fight with. Both Henry and Gregory took canes. 
White, the fellow who sits next to me, took three. 
Our class is so large that new chairs have had to be 
put in nearly all the recitation rooms. The weather 
has been grand all the time. I am writing this in 
haste as I wish to finish it before chapel. I was 
very glad Ma took a trip. If I had waited until 
Monday she would not have gotten it so soon. I 
do hope she will go to New York and on her way 
back stop here and see me. I would like Will [his 
brother] to bring the notes of Dr. Schanck on nat- 
ural history and also Duff's notes. The former I 
can use and not take any; the latter will help me. 
They are both the first notes given to the sopho- 
more class. I lent Mark that Greek book, but will 
send him a card to let Lizzie [his sister] have it. I 
am eating at a club on Witherspoon street. If 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 21 

Lizzie or any of you want any of the books I have, 
let me know and I will send them by mail. * * * 

Tuesday morning. 
In all my haste I did not finish my letter in time. 
fainted in the recitation room. His division 



ran down to Prof. Eddy and he came up, letting 
both divisions out without reciting. Mrs. McCosh 
came over with whisky in one hand and a pitcher of 
water in the other. I saw John afterwards; he 
said he had not felt well since he came back. Drs. 
Hall, Boardman and others will preach in the first 
church on Sunday evenings, beginning toward the 
close of the month. Gough lectures here on 
Wednesday, subject, " Lights and Shadows of Lon- 
don Life." During our cane spree, as the fellows 
were rolling in the streets and all the crowd was 
there, a drunken man drove through at a fearful 
rate. He turned around and went through again, 
being stoned by all who could get stones. He did 
it the third time and was almost killed. Taylor of 
our class was hit on the shoulder blade and had to go 
to bed. Mann, Philadelphia, was struck on the 
breast so that he had to go home, but is back now. 
Mackey, '76, was so used up that he had to be car- 
ried into a house near by, where he was treated in a 
good manner. A stone just glanced my arm. How 
do you like our new monogram? With many thanks 
for paper, card and letter, I remain, 

Your brother, 

Henry. 



22 HP:NKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

A little later in the season he writes to his brother 
Richard, and after speaking of certain matters re- 
garding the arrangement of his rooms, goes on to 
say: 

"What a difference between freshman and 
sophomore years! One good feature is the lectures 
in Schanck and Hunt. I do very little night work. 
On Wednesdays we have no recitation before 1 1 
o'clock and so no work on Tuesday evenings. Mon- 
day and Wednesday nights we poll Horace, which 
is very easy. Thursday, Greek history for Cameron. 
You remember at home I tried to find "Demos- 
thenes' Select and Popular Orations." It is the 
same book we used last year, but I cannot find mine 
anywhere. A fellow gave me an old one and I get 
along very well with it. How did you like Schanck 
in natural history? I like him very well. I sent 
word to Willie to bring C.'s notes, on him, when he 
came. No one seems to be settled to polling yet; 
the weather has been so delightful it is hard to stay 
in. Halsey of '71 is the tutor of Latin. He is very 
popular and pleasant with our class. Van Dyke of 
'72 is registrar. He and Halsey spot our class and 
the fresh. * * * I am glad to see Nast back on 
the Harper's Weekly again. Some one told me the 
reason he left was that Curtis could not see Greeley 
so abused, and said either he or Nast must leave. 
Jacobus is second base on the University nine. We 
were to play the Atlantics, but the rain kept them. 
On Wednesdav we beat the Chelsea's, the Cham- 
pion Amateurs of Brooklyn, by a score of 14 to 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 23 

15 in eleven innings. The excitement toward the 
close was intense. * * * My dear brother, I am 
glad to say I don't miss you. I won't study too 
hard. I am reading in the Bible in course and look- 
ing up the references. I pray God to bless me in 
reading his Word. I always remember you in your 
field of labor and hope you may be abundantly 
blessed. I like to receive such letters as yours. 
Never be afraid to give me any advice. It is nearly 
dark; I must close. I expect a letter from home 
tonight and will not send this until Monday morn- 
ing. Your loving brother, 

Henry H. Webster. 



Early in 1874, the following year, he writes to his 
sister Lizzie: 

January 15, 1874. 
My Dear Sister Lizzie: — 

This is your birthday and I now commence a let- 
ter to be finished as time will permit; but not to be 
so continued from day to day as to appear like ex- 
tracts from a diary. I imagine your birthday w^as 
very much like today; the ground covered with 
snow and the wind blowing, every now and then, 
the loose snow from the more compact; but you do 
not remember and I only think this. At the lecture 
by J. T. Fields last night on "Fiction, and Some of 
Its Authors," I was very much pleased. He met 
George Eliot over twenty-five years ago, at a gentle- 
man's house in London, when she was engaged in 



24 HENKY HORACE WEBSTEK. 

translating some German works. He was told by 
the gentleman before he entered that Miss Evans 
was "homely and very quiet," but in conversation 
nothing of this was noticed. One of the pleasantest 
things, he says, is to call on her at the Sunday after- 
noon receptions. If he had gone to church, it 
seems to me it would have been better. He 
considers Scott fitted to all the mortal ages of man, 
and Cooper is read more abroad than at home. An 
edition has been published at Ispahan, in Persian, and 
he has seen monks in their quiet homes translating 
"The Pilot," etc. Oh, for a Pilot to bring into harbor 
my various thoughts, riding carelessly on every sea of 
imagination. Perhaps a little dinner would aid me. 
An hour has passed since dinner and still my 
thoughts are at sea or somewhere else. This hour 
has been very pleasantly passed in my room in 

company with . He was at a fine party in 

Trenton last night, where were two of the 

and Miss — . He asked me to walk down to 

Trenton tomorrow with him and see them, but I ex- 
cused myself. 

Now, as this letter is fast drawing to a close, I 
hope you will receive it in the same spirit as the 
one by which it has been prompted. Am very 
sorry to send such a poor letter to you whom Rich- 
ard has so highly complimented. 

With my very best wishes for your welfare and 
happiness, I am, dear sister, 

Your loving brother, 

Henry. 



fcCiiUOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 25 

To the same sister he writes a little later in the 
year: 

My Dear Lizzie: — 

A few minutes before Hall will enable me to 
commence a letter. I have been looking for a 
letter from home all the week, but may receive one 
tomorrow. All thoughts of a letter last week were 
laid aside, until, unexpectedly, on Saturday evening, 
I received yours. The delightful spring weather of 
this week has had an end put to it by the snow. * 
* * * This week marks an epoch in my life — the 
commencement of my first novel; it is "Uncle 
Tom's Cabin,'' and I am now somewhere in the 
nineties. It pleases me very much, although Eliza's 
escape across the Ohio river on the floating ice 
rather staggers me, but when I have read more of 
this kind of literature I will be prepared for most any 
thing wonderful. You must excuse me for not giv- 
ing you a subject [for an essay] as in the first place 
it is better for you to choose your own, and sec- 
ondly, I have not had time to justify me in recom- 
mending you one. My valuable (?) assistance will 
be readily given. When those girls [his sister's 
friends] see my sophomore year group, and some 
other pictures, they will open their eyes wider. As 
to their coming to Princeton, it would be first-rate, 
and I hope to have some of you come every year 
while I remain. You don't know how glad I would 
be to see you or any friends around. When you 



cyci 



2 b HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

come, bring them along. You must write me about 
the supper [of which she spoke in a letter to him] 
in full, as no account has reached me, either by let- 
ter or by paper, and, by the way, what has become 
of the ''Democrat for last Saturday? I suppose 
one reason why you have not written is that you are 
all going to write at once and make a big letter. 
You will like one of those articles I sent to Willie, 
about our migratory birds, it is so prettily written. 
Five weeks from tonight I will be leaving, Easton 
bound, for home; in the meantime I will amuse my- 
self polling up for examination and passing those 
**fiery ordeals." Mark wrote me a good long letter 
this week; it is beautifully written and well ex- 
pressed; and now rings the bell for Hall. Good- 
night until tomorrow, when I will finish. Just in 
from Hall. It is after 12 o'clock. My fire was 
nearly out when I came in, and so sit up till it gets 
fully started; while you lie dreaming in your little 
low bed in the "front room," I while away the 
time in writing a very poor letter. Parke Goodwin 
has been chosen by the Clio's to deliver the address 
in June. Some fellows to amuse themselves, not 
long ago, kept firing with a rifle at the bell on the 
top of North College steeple; they are now on a 
visit to their respective homes. It is rumored that 
Nast will lecture here soon; I hope it is true. At 
this point, as my thoughts fail, my fire burns; the 
coal is on. Good-night again. Love to all. 

Henry H. Webster. 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 27 

Very soon after the beginning of Henry's junior 
year, it became evident that a deep religious feeling 
was awakening amongst the people and students of 
Princeton. Henry was greatly interested, and in a 
beautiful letter to his mother describes the first 
movements of that which proved to be a great 
revival. 



Princeton, N. J., November 14, 1874. 
My Very Dear Mother: — 

It has been my custom, how good it is I will not 
say, in writing a letter to jot down the ideas as they 
come, and not with labored manner, to make a great 
ado about nothing. 

So whenever I fail to express myself fully you 
will understand that I am sincere in what I do say. 

For the first time since I have been here I did not 
receive a letter from home on my birthday. Will 
kindly remembered me. But I was amply repaid for 
my waiting when I was handed your letter last night, 
also Maggie's. I do regret that you have written so 
few letters to me since I have been away. One 
likes to hear very often from the person whom he 
loves the best. But I know too well that it has 
been impossible for you to write. I have not writ- 
ten home for some time and so items of interest 
have accumulated. 

You will be glad to hear of a deep religious inter- 
est in college and seminary spreading through the 
town. The Christians have been stirred up and the 



28 hp:nry horace webstek. 

unconverted have been awakened. But as yet it is 
a revival of Christians — just where a revival should 
be^in. For my own part, I know I have been 
blessed. I really feel it; and were I to analyze my 
feelings and heart's desires, the result would be a 
longing for a nearer relation to my Savior and a 
deeper consecration. I have not written this sen- 
tence with any sense of pride, but I know it to be 
the truth. And can I ever thank you for your faith 
and unceasing prayer for me, my dear mother? 
God has answered your prayers and I thank him 
daily for such a mother. And would you know the 
cause of this reviving in my heart and of so many 
others? On Tuesday evening a week ago, Henry 
Moorhouse, an evangelist from England, who has 
been associated with Messrs. Moody and Sankey in 
Scotland and elsewhere, preached in the Second 
church. Next night I went with Taylor and took a 
front seat. In the pulpit sat a rather young-looking 
man — nervous,! thought, from the way he turned his 
eyes. Very bright eyes and of a very pleasant 
countenance. 

When he began, every one listened. He went 
right along, using the best illustrations, so apt and 
simple, and mostly from his own experience. He 
spoke to full houses all the week, and on Sunday 
evening, at the First church, after a sermon by Mr. 
Nichols, '56, he spoke his farewell. I felt like losing 
a friend when he went away. 

At the Second church in the afternoon, after he had 
spoken on, "Now we are ambassadors," etc., Taylor of 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 29 

'73, nowinthe seminary, got up and said hewanted the 
prayers of the people, that he might be more conse- 
crated to Christ. Mr. Moorhouse arose and asked 
all who desired to re-consecrate themselves to Jesus, 
to rise. It seemed as though the entire audience 
rose. I can give you no idea of the man or his 
preaching in a letter, and am ashamed of the poor 
account already given. When I come home I may 
be able to do him justice. Speaking on the Prodigal 
Son, in chapel, Thursday evening, he came to the 
verse where this is found, ** and ran" — he said if you 
search the Bible through, no where is God found to 
be in a hurry — except here, where it is to save a sin- 
ner. His insight into the Scriptures is nothing less 
than wonderful — every one liked him. I heard no 
one say anything against him, but all in favor. He 
really, I believe, won souls to Christ. As yet the 
interest is more especially confined to Christians — I 
know of one who has decided for Christ. Very in- 
teresting union meetings of college, seminary and 
town were held in the Second church this week. Our 
Sunday evening class prayer meeting clearly showed 
that the truth had not fallen on stony ground. 

We are praying for an outpouring of the Spirit, 
and hope to have a revival this year. I leave this 
subject with reluctance. Do not forget me in your 
prayers, nor the many here who are out of Christ. 
As I read the Ninety-second Psalm, every Sabbath, 
I love to think of you in connection with this verse: 
"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord 
shall flourish in the courts of our God." 



30 HENRY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

I often think of you and all the others and you 
do not know how happy it makes one feel to think 
that you are all praying for me. Can I ever prove 
recreant to the prayers offered, the examples of niy 
entire family and the good wishes for me and 
hopes expressed? God forbid, and by His grace, I 
will not. You speak of a profession or calling. 
Next in importance to a mistake about one's spirit- 
ual interests, comes an unhappy marriage, or a 
wrong choice of profession. I have thought as 
much of medicine as anything, but very little even 
on it. I pray to be guided aright. 

On Tuesday evening Henry Lyman and I took 

tea, agreeable to an invitation, at Miss 's 

and a real nice time we had. You used to shock 
(?) me (Just here a friend came in and I stopped 
until Monday; I will introduce him to you further 
on) by asking us when we went out to tea what we 
had to eat. Well, we had stewed oysters — very 
good, coffee and cakes. Everything was very nice 
and I feel like going again. She asked us to come 
any time. The sweet face of John Breckinridge, as 
seen in his picture in the seminary library, has 
quite struck me. As you know all about him I 
hope you will tell me all about him when I come 
home. 

Lewis Cook is very nice, I see him often. I 

stopped at Mr. — — 's to tell of Mrs. 's death on 

Wednesday evening. I did not know she was dead 
until Monday evening. I sent word to them that 
she was dying on Sunday. Mr. immediately 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 31 

telegraphed his sympathy and wrote a letter to 

Mrs. , and by the time I got there he had 

received a reply from Mrs. . What a terrible 

blow it will be for her mother! 

I feel quite at home at Mr. C's; they are very cor- 
dial; he speaks often of you. How sorry I am to 
hear of Teedy being away from home. I think it a 
real shame. I now take pleasure in introducing to 
you my friend Macfarlane of Towanda. He is in 
the fresh class. I find him very companionable. 
We went out on Saturday to see Col. McDaniel's 
horses and we were delighted. I think as much of 
them as though they were my own. In a few days 
he will receive some colts from Kentucky: one of 
them is a full brother to Harry Bassett, for which 
the Colonel paid ^4,700, while he only paid ^315 for 
Harry. 

And here I allude to a matter made known to you 
first. I claim no honor and pray God to make me 
humble. After prayer meeting I talked to W., 
brother of J., about becoming a Christian. He said 
he wanted to be one. So we prayed together in my 
room and then and there he gave himself to Christ. 
I had been praying for him, not as I should; and I 
trust that it was not I that spoke, but the Holy 
Spirit through me. There are many now deciding 
for Christ. When we were talking about rooms, 
you said in a single room one could lock his door 
and pray to God when he chose. I little thought 
then that I would find such a pleasure in so doing. 
But such has been the case. At such times as this 



32 HENEY HORACE WEBSTER. 

we need to be in constant prayer. Such a fine fall 
I never knew. I am very glad you have availed 
yourself of the pleasant days. It hardly seems pos- 
sible that I am twenty-one — I feel just as I did years 
ago. As I look in the glass I say, Twenty-one, yes, 
every bit of it, yet it does not seem so. How 
thankful I am that you have been spared so long to 
us all and hope and pray that you may be long with 
us. You have my very best wishes. 

Luther is so kind and thoughtful in writing and 
sending papers to me. 

This letter has been written in haste and as I draw 
to a close the momentum must be increased as it 
nears mail closing. It sounds good to hear you say 
you miss me. I expect to make it pretty lively — es- 
pecially with Lizzie, who has not written once. 

With my love to all and asking you all to remem- 
ber me and the college in your prayers, I am, 

Your loving son 

Nov. i6, 1874. Henry Horace Webster. 

No one who reads these letters can fail to be 
struck with their directness, naturalness and hon- 
esty. His heart is laid bare for his mother's gaze, 
with all the candor of a little child. He wants her 
to know how much he owes to her for her guidance 
and teaching all through childhood and youth and 
what an inexpressible joy to him this same teaching 
has been in his daily communion with the Master. 

The effect of this revival, amongst the Christians, 
of which he speaks in the foregoing letter, was to 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 33 

quicken his own spiritual energies and lead him to 
greater exertion. During the Christmas vacation 
which he spent at his home in Mauch Chunk, Pa., he 
used all his endeavors to stir the religious part of the 
community to life and action. As his holiday season 
drew to a close, he used every opportunity to prose- 
cute the work of saving souls, and I find the follow- 
ing entries in his diary: — 

"Went to see T— and then up to Round 

House, to see M— ; came down together. Talked 

some to him about giving himself to Jesus. Said 

he would think about it. Went to T- for same 

purpose, but had not courage to speak to him about 
his soul! The room was full at the meeting — I 
prayed. Many more than were expected went into 
study, and of these nineteen were admitted [to the 

church]. D went in. Some for whom I prayed 

went in. M — did not — urged him after the 

meeting to put off no longer." 

The next day he started to return for his second 
term, sophomore year, at college, but ere he left, 

**went to say good-bye to D , andT ,and 

then asked him to decide on this question" [his sal- 
vation]. We can well imagine how tenderly Henry 
would plead with him and how sorrowful he must 

have been when M put off, once again, the 

important decision. 

There were others, too, whom he bore on his 
heart, to whom he had spoken when at his home 
about their salvation, and to whom he was com- 
pelled to write, as he could not go to them. 



34 BENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

Three days after his return to college he makes 
this entry in his diary: "Hurried up German, so as 

to write a letter to M , eight pages — urging 

him to come to Christ now." The following week 
he received a reply to this appeal, "Which left me,'* 
as he expresses it, " in some doubts as to his condi- 
tion." In the prosecution of this work, the bring- 
ing of young men to Christ, he exercised the utmost 
delicacy, never presenting the' matter unless reason- 
ably sure of his ground. His method of procedure 
and manner of introducing this great question is 
most admirably illustrated by Mr. Jas. R. Macfar- 
lane, a former college friend of Henry Webster's, 
and now a lawyer of Pittsburgh, Pa. At the time of 
the inception of this memorial volume Mr. Macfar- 
lane was asked, among others, to give his recollec- 
tions of his late friend. He most cheerfully acqui- 
esced, and in the following letter presents a pen- 
picture of his college life and Christian work among 
his college mates: — 

Pittsburgh, Pa., January 5, 1892. 

My Dear Mr. van Vleck: — 

My acquaintance with Henry H. Webster began 
in the fall of 1874 in Princeton College, when he was 
a junior and I a freshman, I supposed that our in- 
troduction was casual, until I learned afterwards 
that he had made inquiries about me and had 
sought it, and when he, in a few days, proposed a 
walk into the country, called at my room and 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 35 

showed me the attention, so grateful to a home-sick 
lower classman, I saw that he was anxious to help me 
start right in college life. And yet, not until I had 
shown that I was willing to talk to him on any sub- 
ject, did he speak of personal religious matters, al- 
though I very soon saw where his heart was fixed. 

At this date, it is difficult to recall special inci- 
dents in a life so gentle and unobtrusive as his was 
during the two years I knevv^ him at college, but my 
recollection of his chief characteristics is very dis- 
tinct. 

One of the first things I noticed was his frank, 
friendly manner, and that he had friends among all 
kinds of young men, both Christians and those who 
were reputed to be of the "fast set." He made it 
his business to become acquainted with the new 
men, and more than one of them was aided by his 
counsel, and felt the influence of his character. 

There was never any change in his methods of 
Christian work, so far as I observed, but there was a 
development so pronounced that it will be of value 
to others to trace it, even though imperfectly. 

I never knew him, while in Princeton, to speak to 
anyone about his soul's welfare until he had gained 
his friendship. Zealous, though he was, it was not 
easy for him to break through the reserve that 
many have on such subjects. Experience later 
taught him that this reserve is often more apparent 
than real. He was not a fluent talker, yet his 
intense interest in every subject and in the one with 
whom he talked, gave force to all he said. Neither 



36 HENRY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

was it easy for him to speak in public. His class- 
mates may remember his speaking in class prayer 
meetings, but I do not recall ever hearing him in 
the general college gatherings. He did pray in 
those meetings and always took part in all the ex- 
ercises. During the great revival in his senior year, 
when the prayer meeting room was crowded, others, 
m6re ready'^in speech, addressed the audience, but 
Henry stood by the door, directed people to seats, 
gave them hymn books, made them feel welcome, 
and, when the meeting was over, let no opportunity 
slip for a talk with all whom he could reach. 

I never saw anyone happier than he was at that 
time, and, as one after another of his friends de- 
clared his purpose to follow the Master, his expres- 
sions of delight were boyish in their enthusiasm. 
The friendships made before, then gave him a won- 
derful hold, and he took advantage of it, and there 
was not a busier boy in the college. 

So much was I impressed by his backwardness 
about speaking in public, that, when I found him 
in after years in the habit of addressing large gath- 
erings, I expressed my surprise to him. With a 
laugh, he said that he had found that he could talk. 
As his influence extended and his work took him 
among large numbers of men, he spoke to them in 
the same simple, earnest way in which he had 
before talked with individuals, and hundreds who 
have felt the power of his words would be surprised 
to know that he ever had any hesitancy about mak- 
ing a public address. 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. HT 

In all his work he was prepared by thought and 
prayer. He was a good Bible student and I know 
personally that he daily read the Book which was to 
him indeed *'a lamp to his feet." 

Of his personal feelings and experiences he sel- 
dom spake, both, I believe, from modesty and from 
the character of his religion, which was positive and 
active, not alone a matter of feeling, yet his friends 
obtained glimpses of his spiritual exaltation that re- 
vealed the richness of his experience. Outspoken 
in his opinions of right and wrong, and sometimes 
expressing his sorrow for the course of some of the 
college boys, he never condemned; his rule of life 
was for himself. Like others with strong likes, he 
had strong dislikes, but shown through a charitable 
atmosphere. He has expressed his regret to me for 
saying things that seemed to me to be mild and be- 
yond criticism. He was so good a judge of men 
that this self-restraint was noticeable. 

I have referred to his interest in all subjects. 
There was not a boy in college who entered more 
thoroughly into the life of the place. He talked of 
the games, as if there was nothing more important. 
He knew the points in them all, played a fair game 
of baseball, watched the standing of the men and 
the teams, and he won many a young man's atten- 
tion in after years, by his interest in topics that he 
found were live to him. 

He was a conscientious student, with a good 
standing in his class, although he never worked for 
high rank. 



OO HENKY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

He told me early in our acquaintance that he did 
not expect to enter the ministry. Those who knew 
him will agree with me that his motives were most 
conscientious, and that as a layman his entire con- 
secration, with the blessing of God, made him, so 
far as we can see, more useful than in the pulpit. 

Wishing that I could do justice to the memory of 
one who was an inspiration and help to me, who 
has joined with me in my joys and sorrowed with 
me in my grief, and the thoughts of whom will 
always be precious, I am, 

Faithfully yours, 

James R. Macfarlane. 

The religious awakening, in Princeton, of which 
Henry Webster speaks in his letter to his mother, 
seems to have affected, at that time, only Christians, 
and it was not until the beginning of his last year in 
college, that it spread, grew, and swept over the 
whole town and college, taking in all in its glorious 
course. 

Early in the spring of 1875, he wrote one of his 
cheery letters to his "biggest sister," as he calls 
her. In it he gives a general account of his life, 
and his description of his religious reading is ex- 
cellent and most characteristic. 

Princeton, N. J., March i, 1875. 
My Dear Sister Lizzie: — 

Without giving you the state of the weather, I 



SCHOOL AND COLLEUE DAYS. S'J 

merely call your attention to the date of this letter, 
and the protest suggested. I hope in this letter to 
make a reply to yours, Ma's and Willie's, and hope 
all will be satisfied. 

* * -* ^\iQ winter has been unusually brilliant 
here, in the way of parties. Mr. Hains invited the 
whole fresh class to his house — about thirty or 
forty were there. Mrs. Guyot has given several; Dr. 
Green, one; Mrs. Packard, one; and several others 
have given entertainments. One fellow was at five 
or six one week. As yet I am untouched, and hope 
to be unnoticed — not sour grapes, by any means, 
but I really do not care about going into company 
here. But wait until I am invited. 

Dr. McCosh gave the seniors a reception some 
time ago, and last week the scientifics were at his 
house, and a few others — among them Henry, who 
has become quite a ladies' man, as they say. From 
what I learn, the parties are conducted on the 
somewhat ancient plan of no dancing, but of mak- 
ing yourself generally agreeable. At Dr. McCosh's, 
as they were standing round the refreshments, there 
was a long pause, and one young gentleman, sup- 
posing all w^ere w^aiting for some one to break the 
ice, boldly made for the chicken salad, and was 
about to help his comrade, as somebody would say, 
when he heard a loud rapping on the table, imme- 
diately followed by grace being asked by Dr. Mc- 
Cosh, * * * 

Some time ago a fellow said to me, he did not 
like to go into the college library, because he saw 



•iO HENKY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

SO many books he would like to read and could not. 
I was a stranger, for a long time, to this feeling, but 
I do tell you that I have had quite an interest awak- 
ened in me to read. 

Saturday I finished Parkman's "Old Regime in 
Canada." The first' part is intensely interesting — 
the transition period, and especially one chapter on 
the Holy Wars, telling of the heroic exploits, and 
another on the heroes of Long Saut: — how a hand- 
ful, about twenty, held in check more than five 
hundred Indians, and so used them up, that they 
fell back for reinforcements, and not until a new 
force of seven hundred Indians were added did 
these brave fellows give up. Nor did they give up, 
but were cut in pieces, one by one. 

The latter part, about the government, ecclesias- 
tical and civil, is not so interesting. Will bring it, 
if agreeable, but will try to get his " Discovery of 
the Great West." Would you believe, I finished in 
about a week the first volume of " Forsyth's Life of 
Cicero" — 360 pages. And what a book! I was really 
delighted with it. A very pleasant thing it is to 
read the life of a man, who lived so long ago, told 
in a manner as if it were of our day. I have com- 
menced to read the second volume which gives 
promise of excelling the first in interest. 

Dr. McDuff's "Words of Jesus" has so pleased me 
that I look eagerly for anything from his pen. 
And you can not tell how glad I was to find one of 
his books some time in the Philadelphian library, 
called "The Hart and the Waterbrooks," an expo- 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 41 

sition of the Forty-second Psalm. When I com- 
menced to read it, one Sunday, I could hardly lay it 
aside. A day or so after, I took it up and would 
have read it on and on, but thought that I would 
keep it until Sabbath, when I could not always have 
such good reading. For beauty of language and 
imagery I have never seen its equal, and at the 
same time it is devotional, practical, and in a cer- 
tain sense didactic. You may be sure I will bring it. 

March 3. We had a good time on Washington's 
birthday — a holiday all day. I went down to bring 

Miss to the exercises, and then it was I had 

my first carriage ride in Princeton. • is a very 

good-looking girl, every bit of a lady, and quite 
agreeable. 

I found out the other day that Macfarlane was 
once a cadet. In Brockett, most of the last few 
weeks have been devoted to steam engines, espe- 
cially the theory of them. Now, before entering 
upon the subject, practically, the professor has seen 
fit to draw our attention to it more closely by giv- 
ing several stereopticon views of the engines of the 
ancients, especially of the Egyptians. The device 
of the priests of Isis, to have a flow of water and 
wine to impose upon the people, was none other 
than a kind of engine called in the picture — double 
acting idolatrous engine. I hope before he finishes 
his exhibitions he will show us an engine of today. 
Do you know I long to see a fine locomotive like 
the Weatherly shops turn out? Here we have an 
old dingy looking thing called an engine, and this 



42 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

is all I see, unless I go out to the maia line, where 
the engines are not much neater. 

Today I received a ten-page letter from in 

reply to one of mine, eight pages in length; for I am 
too stingy to send less than eight pages in a letter. 

"Annette," the novel I wrote about, is attributed 
to many. It is generally placed to Lottie Shields, 
as the name given, Charlotte Walsingham, is the 
name of a character which she played here in a pri- 
vate theatrical some time since. She disclaims it. 

's letter of yesterday gives a full account of 

the accident, and their fortunate escape from injury. 
It was really remarkable. Some time ago I wrote 

to for the addresses on " Sumner." I sent on 

Monday and received it on Thursday, rather prompt. 

Oh how many letters I have written this term, 
and with the exception of the last mentioned, they 
have contained eight pages. 

How were the pictures you had taken w^hen in 
Philadelphia? Does j\Ia intend to go to Baltimore 
this spring? I wish she would come here in fine 
weather. As I heard Dr. Hodge preach the other 
Sabbath, I wished she had been there. It was one 
of the best sermons I ever heard him preach. It 
was so plain, so earnest and a regular gospel ser- 
mon. So overcome was he, that to relieve himself 
he let his hand fall on the other once or twice, and 
then could hardly speak. We often hear speakers, 
especially at colleges, attempt to represent the sor- 
row or grief of the speech, but how far they fall 
from its desired end. But the Doctor's was not put 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 



43 



on, as he brought the tears to. the eyes of some, and 
could hardly control his own. * * * Last Sab- 
bath Dr. preached his first sermon. It was 

just twenty-three minutes long, and we were out of 
chapel in a little over an hour. This has made him 
very popular, and an effort will be made to have 
him take the place of preacher to the university. 
Of course this effort will be on the part of the stu- 
dents. * * * I hoped to send you a well writ- 
ten letter, at least, taking no care of the expression, 
as I know in what contempt you hold my chirogra- 
phy. But on I must go if I wish to finish. Last 
night the Glee Club gave a concert. We were in 
no respect disappointed. There was a large house 
and every one seemed to be in good spirits. It is 

said, as Dr. was meandering along the streets 

of New York, about the time King Kalakaua was 
in this country, that he was escorted to his hotel by 
the bootblacks, and kindred spirits of the streets, 
crying out, " Long live King K." He is said to 
have turned around once or twice and said, "De- 
sist!" "Desist!" /will for the present and go 
to dinner. 

Once more to the breach, kind friends! Time, 
nearly supper. Scene, Sky parlor of North College. 
Persons, The writer Solus, nominative case, mascu- 
line gender. This is not original, as you must 

know; it is according to , the gentleman who 

so kindly entertained us on the 22nd. 

Please answer this question — Do you receive the 
Christian at Work when Luther is through with it? 



44: HE:NliY HORACE AVEBSTEIi. 

Dear Little Will, how nice that was about the moon. 

The other night came into 's room 

and asked him if he wanted to see him rouse up the 

w4iole college. Of course he did. So put 

his head out of the window and called, fire, heads 
out, fight, etc. The freshmen responded cordially 
to the call, and came out, fully prepared with horns, 
and in a short time e\'erything was in a commo- 
tion. Pistols, etc., were discharged, and when the 
joke was found out everything returned to its 
wonted quietness. Result: two young gentlemen 

of our class sent home on a short vacation. 

told one of the fellows when he was up before the 
faculty that firing the pistol was as good as murder. 

Prof. showed a great amount of knowledge 

when he thought the revolver went off seven times 

at once. This led to inform him he knew 

nothing about war. 

"As when the weary traveler, etc." So I survey 
my last page. It was my intention to make out six- 
teen pages — the longest letter I ever wrote, and it 
is becoming that it should go to my biggest sister. 
I hardly like to pass Willie's and Ma's letters by, 
unnoticed, but must ask their indulgence. Let it be 
eight for you, four for Ma, and the rest for Willie. 
My peroration is simple and brief. Write soon, be 
a good girl, and write often. 

With my warmest love to Ma and the girls, Will 
and Richard, I am, 

Your loving brother, 

Henry. 



SCHOOL AND COLLEGE DAYS. 45 

Junior year having closed, he returned, with a 
keen relish, to his loved ones at Mauch Chunk, Pa. 
He brought with him high spirits, great enjoyment 
of ail out-door employments, and a strong desire to 
lead a higher, purer Christian life. Two extracts 
from his diary about this time show this clearer 
than aught else. On the 14th of August he says: 

"Aug. 14. Clear. The Barnes, Duff and I went 
to the Pavilion at 8:30, then to Summit. At burn- 
ing mine met Mr. Patterson, who has been in the 
employ of the company fifty years; he took us 
through the openings. He had charge when the 
mine was fired and also first opened; he was not 
sure whether the mine was fired maliciously or not. 
At his house he treated us to peaches and water. I 

had not been here since Aunt Susan's death. 

is now Mrs. and the mother of two children. 

I went down to the cellar to the old spring where I 
had often gone in days of yore. Everything wore a 
familiar air; we went through the old strawberry 
patch where in younger days I had eaten many ber- 
ries. We went to No. 4. Saw the *' ball pump" 
which, with its two plungers, throws out 290 gallons 
per stroke. Its working was new to me. Here I 
met a clever Scotchman named David Lanson, in- 
side boss of No. 4; his kind offer to go down we 
had to refuse. He talked well and rapidly, and has 
seen mining in all shapes and countries. At 12:25 
came down home, and enjoyed the ride down as 
though it were my first. Uncle Nathan Patterson 
does not agree with these geologists who believe 



46 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER 

coal a vegetable formation, and supported his theory 
well. He was exceedingly polite and kind in go- 
ing around with us. The Barnes left for Tamaqua 
at 2:15, N. V. R. R." 

Again, on the ist ot September he makes the fol- 
lowing entry: — ■ 

"Sept. I. One year gone since I began this diary. 
A year of many changes. Many friends have died. 
I am spared, God make me grateful to Him for 
His mercies. Took the papers to Upper Mauch 
Chunk. Went to old Tunnel with Messrs. Amidon 
and O'Donnell; unexpecting, I conducted the meet- 
ing and spoke without any preparation, on 'Behold, 
I stand at the door and knock.' Usual number 
present." 



CHAPTER III. 

Princeton's great revival of 1876. 

The first half of Henry Webster's last year at col- 
lege, his senior year, seems to have passed without 
any occurrence of special note. He returned from 
his summer holidays and once again took up the 
thread of student life. His moral nature — as we see 
it reflected in his diary — seems to. have broadened 
and deepened, and his purpose to serve his Master 
is renewed and intensified. His cheerful, sunny dis- 
position is brighter, too, if that is possible, and we 
find him engaged in all the athletics of Princeton. 
He makes occasional mention of the religious in- 
terest among Christians, which it will be remem- 
bered started the former year. Occasionally, too, 
he states the fact, briefly, that he and his classmates 
are praying for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on 
the college and town, and that the Master would 
come and guide them aright. With the close of the 
year (1875") came the examinations, and these re- 
quired all his time in connection with his recita- 
tions. He speaks of himself, occasionally, in this 
connection, and in one instance tells us that he ''did 
poorly; it was in me, but so crammed as not to be 
able to get out." Again, he speaks of being "up" be- 



48 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

fore one of the professors, and confesses to feeling 
"owly, and rather scared as to getting through, for 
I knew nothing of the last lectures, and all was in 
a confused state." He \vas unnecessarily anxious, 
though, for he tells us farther on in his diary, "did 
much better than I anticipated — but who knows 
how I did until the grades come?" His fears seem 
to have been groundless, however, and that he did 
well, we are sure, else he could not have gone 
home, shortly after, for his Christmas holidays, wdth 
such a light heart. 

Early in 1876 he is back at Princeton, and for the 
last time as a student. A day or two after his 
arrival and as soon as he is partially settled, he 
writes to his oldest sister a long, cheery letter, 
descriptive of his life, at that time, in Princeton. It 
is brimful of fun and pleasantry, and yet, withal ten- 
der, loving, and like himself. 



PRT^XETON, N. J., January 18, 1876. 
My Dear Sister: — 

Observe the date and receive my best wishes for 
you. 

A lonely mortal indeed I was yesterday, all of 
the way from home to Philadelphia. As we glided 
along the Lehigh, I pushed forward, and what was 
before me but the back of a young girl, whom I 
knew must be nice and probably pretty. She sat in 
the seat near the rear of the car, and I pushed on to 
the foremost seat. Afte4' my brilliant charge to the 



Princeton's great revival. 49 

front, I looked around and could have wished to 
have been fortunate enough to have captured, not 
her, but a seat near her. This little charmer we 
must view from the top. To begin — a very black 
sealskin cap crowned her unusually well shaped 
head, but that which once warmed the happy in- 
habitant of the cold Arctic ocean and tried to sit on 
this girl's head as naturally as when it enclosed the 
body of the animal aforesaid, did not prevent, along 
the forehead, little bunches of hair exposing them- 
selves to view. Like clusters of grapes hanging 
over the frame, they seemed — or more exactly, like 
doves flying to their windows. The forehead itself 
was a rare one. If those doves mentioned above 
had come and peeped over the forehead into the 
depth below, would they have seen the cold gray 
eye? Not any but black, very black ones, peered 
out like birdies from their nest. The face was very 
fair indeed, rather pale — the mouth was in keeping 

with the rest. Indeed, she reminded me of X 

Y . The lovely face took all my thoughts 

away from the dress and other adornments. She 
was going to Easton, and I don't know how much 
farther, and I, alas, had a ticket via Philadelphia! 
When the car was uncoupled, and she went on, 
while I was left behind, I felt even more lonely 
than when first I saw her lovely self. Who was she! 
let Richard answer. 

Wednesday morning. As Richard won't be pres- 
ent to answer, let us ask the conductor. He said 
they had gotten on at WilkesBarre and he thought 



50 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

they were !! from Athens. When I write to 

Henry, who is now at Andover, I will know surely 
if it is a cousin. She was about i8 or 19; a lady 
older somewhat was with her. If Richard knew she 
was in WilkesBarre and was going on the train, 
why did he not tell me? Enough of this. Judge 
Packard was aboard and reallv devoured the Eii- 
quiver. The Central brought two passengers, or 
perhaps a few more. Some way down the road a 
man rushed through the car while the train was 
moving and went to the platform. Every one ex- 
pected he would jump off, for they all looked out 
of the windows. And he did jump off — the train 
going at a good rate; he Vvcnt sprawling and fell 
prone upon the ground and plowed it with his face. 
Some crazy things I have seen, but this was most in- 
sane. His wife, I suppose, had to be kept on the 
car; she seemed to be bound to get off. Nearer 
the city the sun brightened up things for us. In- 
deed it seemed as if the rays were emanating from 
the good center of Brotherly Love. The freshness 
of verdant green also brightened the scene. Ken- 
sington soon was exchanged for Trenton. I hurry 
— Don't tell Maggie, but that was a surprise to me 
when after enjoying to its full extent that jolly 
lunch, I reached to bring out some more, but alas 
there was none. I had eaten it on the N. P. and 
also on the P. R. R. So it could not be expected 
to last forever. * * * At last Princeton was 
gained and supper was the next topic. I hailed 
Gregory, who came in the afternoon train, and I got 



1' K 1 Ts' C Ji: r( J ]SI S G KE AT R E \" i V A L . 



51 



supper at Hamilton's. Strange, isn't it! the woman 
who keeps the house is Mrs. Hubbard, with whom 
I first boarded more than five years ago and the 
waiter who was at the Refectory when I first 
went there just five years ago waited on me that 
night and at the same meal. This seems to be 
a movement in a cycle. As you are so largely 
interested in my welfare, especially the fare, pardon 
the details, as this letter is for all of you. Gregory 
being at Hamilton's is one good reason for my go- 
ing there. All of my old crowd at Simpson's, some 
of whom I have eaten with since sophomore year, 
were at a new club, and were desirous that I should 
go with them. On an equality, I suppose the eat- 
ing at both is, and my preference would be for my 
old crowd, except that my friends, I mean the more 
intimate ones, are balanced, or it may be overbal- 
anced, by an indiscriminate collection of fellows 
from our class. At the new place we have no milk 
to drink, and as I do not drink coffee, I am rather 
the loser here compared with Simpson's. After a 
while I hope we will get milk. There are about four- 
teen of our fellows at the club. Everything is clean 
and the room wears a pleasant appearance, and the 
waiter is all one can desire. This may seem like a 
freshman's letter — let it be so — I want you to know 
how I am doing in this important department of 
life everywhere. In the evening Duff, Henry, Pope 
and I gathered as we had done this time in fresh 
year, and talked over everything. This meeting 
fully enlivened me and Pope too. If I had had to 



O^ HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

have been by myself that evening I would have 
been blue, perhaps homesick — for I missed you 
awfully. * * * Awaiting me was a letter from 

and and an invitation to for 

the 19th inst. The invitation I have accepted and 
will appear in my heavy suit and heavy boots; I 
don't care much about either appearance or enter- 
tainment. There will be about twelve gentlemen to 
one lady, and it will be rather an exciting time, es- 
peciall}' for the lady — to be surrounded by this so 
great number of collegirus. In the meanwhile I 
sigh with Mr. Shakespeare, " If 'twere done 
'twere well it should be done quickly" — not taken 
from the original, however. Nothing but mud 
hereabouts. 

Messrs. Moody and Sankey will not come, I am 
told. "The winter of our discontent" begins to be 
made glorious — Last evening Mr. DeCordova (pro- 
nounced De-Cord-ova) lectured on "Mrs. Grundy" 
to a good house. I did not get very well acquainted 
with the lady spoken of above — although I enjoyed 
the lecture. The lecture was really a story — a novel, 
told on the platform. The plot I should think was 
well laid, the story was told happily, and the char- 
acters drawn so as to be recognized. Aside — If I 
had only to criticize this, and not Mr. Morris' po- 
etry, or answer the question should church property 
be taxed, or tell my worthy professor, in English, 
what I thought of the eloquence of Edmund Burke, 
'twere w^ell. Yet I am doing the first and must do 
one of the latter — and that on ten pages of legal 



''- — — - 53 



PRINCETON S GREAT REVIVAL. 



cap. Cordova himself was a burly sort of fellow — 
English, I should judge, from the free and easy way 
he is said to have sworn. He looked like Ben 
Butler and Bill Tweed. 

This noon our class day elections came off in a 
most quiet manner, quite the reverse of former 
elections. There will be a fight over our present to 
the college. Some want to give a bust of Wither- 
spoon; but I don't believe it will be carried. * * 
* The Colored Methodist church is to give a 
course of lectures — the first tonight. Subject, "The 
Inherent Moral Force in Society," by a colored semi- 
nole by the name of . Half the class by col- 
ored theologues and the rest by white seminoles — 
Rather warm, is it not? Time nor items permit me 
to finish this sheet. 

With my love to you, my dear sister, and all of 
you, I am, 

Your loving brother. 

Hazy. 

P. S. And I can't read it over, so excuse all errors. 

Hazy. 



Shortly after this letter was written, the first indi- 
cations of the great revival began to be noticeable. 
Like all great movements of the Holy Spirit, it be- 
gan in a small way, and among a few of the mem- 
bers of the senior class. Perhaps it were better to 
say that the second stage in the religious move- 
ment began to be noticed, for the year prior to this, 



54 HENEY HORACE WEBSTER. 

Christians, as we have seen, were greatly stirred. 
In this first manifestation of his Spirit, the Master 
had most undoubtedly been preparing his people in 
Princeton, for this his second coming, with greater 
power. Henry Webster's class seems to have been 
the first one visited, and with their vow (the vow of 
a number of seniors) to reconsecrate themselves to 
Christ and his work, the glorious season was begun. 

He speaks of this, pointedly, and tells us in his 
diary that they: " Resolved — to have meeting of 
consecration on Wednesday night." At this meet- 
ing they each promised to " begin at once, and each 
man speak to his particular friend, concerning his 
soul's salvation." Each man seems to have gone 
out from that meeting and begun at once, he among 
them, for he tells us that he "wanted to talk with 
." In this he was frustrated, for two obsta- 
cles presented themselves; one in the refusal of 

to go with him, and the other in the demand 

of a classmate for Webster to go with him, and help 
him on some Latin. He was much chagrined over 
his first failure — after the meeting — and blames 
himself thus: "I was not anxious enough to fol- 
low him up. Will I pray for him and not speak? 
May Jesus help me to speak wisely to him." Not 
to follow this case too much in its details, it still 
may be interesting to know that he finally did 
speak with him and so abundantly were his efforts 
blessed that the friend came to the Savior. 

A few days after this incident the outpouring of 
the Spirit, so long expected and earnestly looked 



PKINCETON's GKEAT P.KriYAL. 55 

for, took place. In a card to his brother Richard, 
he tells him that "A great revival is in progress — 
Ave feel as if every man in college would be con- 
verted. The interest is deep. Nearly the whole 
junior class is revived, the sophomore next in inter- 
est — ours next. Philadelphia [Philadelphia Soci- 
ety] room so full as to bring in benches on Satur- 
day evening. Remember us — and the writer. Tell 

and ask him to remember and 

and F of if you choose. Can't write 

more. H. H. W." 

About the same date he records in his diary — 
*' Chapel full to hear Mr. Harris from 'Come unto 
me.' Prayer meeting in the afternoon for whole 
college. Several rose saying that they had become 

Christians, or asking for prayers. was not 

there though he said he would come, and on com- 
ing out I asked his father if had been there. 

Yes, he said, with tears in his eyes and he rose 
among the first. I put after him and reached him 
at the gymnasium; all I could say was 'God bless 
you' — he could say nothing — he wept so. Well, 
there was joy over in North [college] and among 
the members of our prayer circle, who had been 
praying for him one year. Joyous crowd at our 
small meeting, new converts rose and one asked for 
prayers." 

Again, on the next day, he makes the following 
entry: " Felt so happy I could not contain myself 
— I am a Christian because I trust Christ and it is 
all done. Afterwards, we had an informal prayer 



56 HENKY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

meeting — one of the best I ever attended. Met Dr. 

in room. Talked freely with him on 

religious matters. Good prayer meeting. [The sec- 
ond they had had, in a short time]. rose for 

prayers. Some of us went in X 's room, 8i 

North. By accident, Z came in. We prayed 

with him and for him and besought him to become 
a Christian — he would say nothing — would not pra}' 
for himself. We could do nothing. Never was I 
so taught man's inability to save himself or have 
others save him before. For about two hours we 
were there, we could do nothing but pray. Finalh^ 

Z went to his room. in No. loi was 

deciding the great question. Soon he decided and 
there was joy — we had waited to hear from him and 

Z as if we were waiting for election returns. 

Soon news came from Z ; he had fallen on his 

knees and given all up. Late to bed. Spoke to 
in the afternoon. * * * " 

These extracts show how intense was the interest 
in the college, how eager were all Christians and 
how personal was the Avork of pointing souls to 
Christ. In the mids^t of his untiring work, he finds 
time to write two letters to his mother, letters in 
which his delight in the labor in which he is 
engaged shines out most brilliantly. 

The first is a general description of the revival in 
Princeton, and the second, while it naturally over- 
flows with the great outpouring of the Spirit, yet it 
is more of an endeavor to awaken Christians at his 
home in ?^Iauch Chunk, and stir them to pray for a 



Princeton's great revival. 57 

revival in their midst. It is a splendid plea for 
earnest e 
quiet air. 



earnest effort and rings out like a bugle note on the 



Princeton College, February 8, 1876. 
My Dearest Mother: — 

Your whole-souled, loving and Christian mother- 
letter I read with pleasure last evening. We were 
mutually disappointed — you expecting more from 
me and I sooner from you. 

I don't know where to begin and what to say — it 
is too wonderful to relate, I have been in — not con- 
ceit — the front of the movement, and have seen and 
heard so much as not to be able to discriminate or 
arrange in order. I say the above not from conceit 
but to let you know that I am keeping abreast of 
the movement, and know whereof I speak. 

Every morning we hear of souls born again. 

Dr. Cuyler spoke earnestly to a crowded chapel, 
numbers rose for prayers, our class held meeetings 
after, in rooms — the one in Parmly's room was the 
time of the decision of three souls for Christ, one 
who had been a Universalist, and two fellows 
utterly indifferent. 

On Thursday there were about fifty converts and 
as many reclaimed — now, eighty would be more ex- 
act for the number of conversions. 

Our class hold meetings from room to room, un- 
converted ones are brought in the room, and as 
the new converts tell their joys, prayers are offered 



58 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



and hymns sung — then any are requested to ask for 
prayers for themselves and friends — this leads some 
unconverted one to ask an interest, and then he is 
prayed for and worked with until he accepts Christ. 

Four were convented in Beach's rooms on Wednes- 
day last. It is providential, I believe, that I have 
not seen many of the fellows nor been with them 
when they decided, because I believe it has been a 
test of my faith. After such meetings we just sing 
Sankey's book through, and I get to bed after one. 
The meetings of the evangelists were crowded, and 
wonderful results have followed. Mr. Sankey sang 
nearly everything and we would join in the chorus. 
The whole college is thinking on the subject of re- 
ligion, and a spirit of seriousness is pervading all — 
even in town. There are only ten, I'm told, uncon- 
verted in the fresh class, about thirty in ours. The 
papers gave rather exaggerated accounts, as to par- 
ticulars, but in general they are correct. is 

still in the dark, all of us are praying for him. Do 
you all. Last night a meeting was held in the 
Second church, and numbers of the new converts 
spoke for Jesus. Numbers in the audience rose for 
prayers. I never knew before this season how easy 
it is to become a Christian. I am learning now to 

trust in Jesus. I know I am being blessed. 

and all the new converts are zealous, and humble. 
I can not doubt their genuine conversion. 

I must stop now as we have shortly. I 

have been so hurried in writing this that I am 
utterly disgusted. I hoped to get something in so 



PKINCETOn's great KKVIVAL. 59 

Richard might see it before he went to WilkesBarre. 
Will try to write a better letter soon. I just had a 
little time and could write nothing. Tell Mark 
what is going on here. Will you send Harry Price's 
address? Pray for me, 

Your son, 
Henry. 



Princeton College, February 9, 1876. 
My Dearest Mother: — 

My object in writing this letter is to see if we can 
not have a revival at home. It has been my prayer 
for a long time, and though among the many ob- 
jects of prayers, my own dear church has been neg- 
lected, yet it has never been forgotten. I yet hope 
and pray you all may have such a work of grace as 
was never witnessed in that whole region. And I 
am encouraged to write, in addition to the willing- 
ness of Jesus and the Spirit's readiness to bless, 
from the fact that a freshman told me that he had 
written to his home in the West, and told them of 
what wondrous things God had done for us here. 
He wrote before the work became so general, and, 
still more encouraging, he has received word that 
the church went to work and they are now enjoying 
a work there. Now I suppose all at home would 
like to have a revival. Surely not all are in the ark 
of safety — how many families are separated nov\^ on 
the great question — and if something is not done, 
will they not have the sorrow at least, of a divided 



00 HENRY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

family in heaven. You all must long- for a revival. 
Why can't the church be revived every year? It 
would be a strange world if nature were not revived 
after the winter. 

At Cranbury they have a revival every year, or 
nearly every year — they had one last winter and 
are now having another — last Sabbath fifty-six were 
added to the church. 

Stockton, near by, has a work of grace so regu- 
larly, that they hardly know what it is to be passed 
by — not hardly passed by in one sense; zve let the 
Spirit pass by — He is willing— our part is not done. 

I am unprepared to say how the two churches 
above mentioned carried on the work in their 
bounds, but I can tell you fully how it was done 
and is still being done in our midst. And if this 
letter is long, you will excuse me. I am in earnest 
about this. I am talking of the human side of the 
question, and any taking to ourselves of powers, 
words or phrases, not apparently correct, you will 
understand as being meant, what we can do by the 
blessing of the Holy Spirit. 

I will not take up time telling of my sorrow and 
shame for doing nothing for souls and Christ when 
at home. If you say this is only a letter and if you 
were here you would not talk so — I hope that it 
may not be true. I long to come home and tell all 
how easy it is to become a Christian. However, if 
this letter has the effect of stirring any of you up 
to work, I shall be fully thankful and rejoiced 

On Tuesday evening before the Day of Prayer, at 



Princeton's great revital. 61 

our prayer meeting, we resolved to hold on the 
next evening a consecration meeting, one of per- 
sonal consecration to Christ and his work. Wednes- 
day's meeting was full — we found the Spirit there, 
everything manifested this — the singing was some- 
thing wonderful. Before we closed, it was sug- 
gested that all who would or were willing to speak 
to some one on the next day about Christ and his 
immortal soul, should rise. Before doing so, a few 
moments were spent in private prayer — then there 
rose up a mass of students, wonderfully suggestive 
of the exceeding great army of dry bones which 
stood up. What a power for Christ, said our leader, 
and with ** Praise God from whom all blessings 
flow," the meeting closed. As I sit now and write, 
I cannot help but think of the many souls born 
again since then. 

We Christians knew our duty and yet had not the 
courage to speak for Jesus, but here we had a vow 
resting upon us, which, if we could help, w^e did not 
wish to see unfulfilled. We felt that every one was 
going to speak and so our united purpose strength- 
ened us. 

W^e found our friends all waiting to be spoken 
with and thankful for the interest manifested. 
Many were aching to be spoken with and acted on 
the words spoken. 

Now every man in college has been talked with 
personally, and now after two weeks we can only 
pray God for the salvation of souls — for only in a 
few cases is it advisable to speak. Nearly every 



62 llE^EY HOEACE WEBSTEK. 

man in college who is still unconverted, is men- 
tioned by name before the throne of grace con- 
stantl}\ And friends ask for prayers in their behalf 
at all the meetings; of course no names are men- 
tioned here, at these general meetings. 

The noon prayer meeting was full on Thursday — 
Dr. Taylor [of New York City] spoke like a man in 
earnest, and in the evening preached even more 
powerfully. 

By this time we were getting, well to our work — 
each meeting was followed up by personal work. 
Saturday night came and the Philadelphian room 
was filled to overflowing. Such a meeting in size 
and interest was not seen here for years. New con- 
verts rose and witnessed for Jesus. Backsliders 
asked for prayers. Christians asked for more con- 
secration and a nearness to Jesus and that God 
would bless the words spoken by them to their 
friends — for earnestness, for constancy, prayers for 
unconverted friends. Those who desired to be 
Christians asked for prayers. I sat in the back 
part of the room and heard and saw everything. 
Now the room looked like a mighty forest laid low. 
Was that the noble army that stood up only a few 
da3's before? Yes, and they were gaining strength 
for new triumphs — it was a place of weeping, but 
they w^ere mostly tears of joy. 

Sabbath's morning sermon was a plain exposition 
of "Come unto Me" — just what we all seemed to 
want. Chapel never so full for this preacher as 
then. 



i'kinceton's great ep:yival. 63 

Sabbath afternoon a general prayer meeting was 
held. New converts rose and spoke. Numbers rose 
for prayers. 

The class meetings on Sunday and Monday even- 
ings were full and lasted for over one hour and a 
half. Dr. Hodge spoke as only he can, on Tuesday 
evening — and good followed his words; five of our 
class were converted that evening. Dr. Cuyler 
spoke on Thursday and many rose for prayers after 
his remarks. 

On Saturday the evangelists came and held five 
services, in town and chapel, loi rose one night — 
sixty the next morning, students and town people, 
and nearly twenty rose in chapel. Of them nothing 
need be said by me. 

Last evening the Philadelphian was so full that 
we had to bring in chairs, settees, and some sat on 
a table and on the window sills, while others stood; 
there were about 240 there. 

Most of the speakers were new converts. Several 
rose for prayers— very few unconverted were there. 
On Monday evening, besides our regular meetings, 
there was one held in the Second church. Here our 
new converts witnessed for Jesus and stood up 
nobly for Him. About fifty rose for prayers, and 
many Christians reconsecrated themselves to Christ, 
and promised to speak to their friends about Jesus. 
What has been done in town I will say later. To- 
night we expect a monster meeting in the Philadel- 
phian. So far the number of converts is seventy- 
nine. Fresh, all but thirteen, are Christians; new 



64 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

converts, eighteen; sophomores seventeen, juniors 
twenty-six, seniors eighteen. 

Mr. Moody came to us at the right time; we had 
worked for ten days and he could reach the indif- 
ferent, moralists and others, better than we. 

February lo. i\Iore than three hundred were at 
the meeting Wednesday evening — only the new 
converts took part. I can't describe it. The con- 
verts now number nearly one hundred. One 
convert said: " Boys, I've taken up a new study; 
on it is written. 'Saved by the blood of Jesus.' You 
can't get lOO in it, but you don't get conditioned." 
This one had been given up by his mother, I be- 
lieve, as too bad to do anything for — he was among 

the first converted. said as he rose, '*! feel 

as cold as marble, but a vision of an aged mother 
comes to me, one who is now praying for me. I 
want to be a Christian. Pray for me." After his 
conversion he said: "My hands are so numbed with 
sin and the cares of the world, that I can't hold on 
— but Jesus holds me." 

said last night at the meeting that he had 

determined to steel himself against all impressions 
on the Day of Prayer; on that day he was some- 
what affected. After sermon on Sabbath, some one 
in talking with him said: "All the university nine, 
except the fielders, are Christians, or are in." The 
thought struck him — "all the infielders are iji — all 
the outfielders are <??//." As soon as he got home 
he surrendered himself to Jesus. 

Personal efforts — endeavors and words, with the 



Princeton's great revival. 65 

blessing of God, have done this great work here, a 
work Dr. Atwater told me, a greater one he had not 
known here — he was at the meeting last evening. 
At our class meetings new converts rise and confess 
Christ and urge others to come — then any who 
wish to be prayed for rise. After the large class 
meetings we have gatherings of a few in the rooms 
of the fellows — when the converts tell their experi- 
ence, the unconverted are led to think, and often to 
decide. Numbers have told me that these small 
meetings were the means of bringing them to the 
Savior. 

Now what can be done at home? Can't you have 
a consecration meeting? It will surely bring you 
all nearer to Christ and do you good — then cannot 
the people be asked to rise and say they will speak 
to their unconverted friends about Jesus and his love 
for their immortal souls? By thus banding together 
each one will be strengthened in his purpose. 

Tell the story. Moody said his greatest hope of 
this revival here was that so much personal work 
was done. In Philadelphia they accomplished little, 
until the people got to work and worked for indi- 
vidual souls — Nor did he expect anything in New 
York before Christians got to work. That's the se- 
cret we have found We don't believe in our pray- 
ers if we will not follow them up. How many 
special prayers have been answered here this season 
I could not find time to tell. 

February ii. Our meeting last evening was as 
full as before; not so much interest, as the meeting 



66 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

was conducted by the faculty and the fellows did 
not feel the freedom of a class or student meeting. 

I'm just from a class meeting — more and more do 

we see the power of prayer. has not asked 

for prayers before; he said if the whole world came 
he would not until he were convinced. One fellow 
was at the meeting last night who had not been to 
a prayer meeting while in college for three years — 
he came a skeptic, he went away believing in the 
efficacy of prayer. I have wandered — Dr. Atwater 
said there was nothing like personal effort. A 
classmate said to him, "do come to the meeting" — 
that turiled him toward spiritual things. We must 
follow- up the ordinary means of grace by personal 
work. 

Now, ourcongregation may not differ from others 
in many respects, but in this I think we fail. Last 
year's work of grace was wonderful; and it was 
wonderful in this, that so few did any work — how 
many besides Mr. Ferrier do you suppose spoke for 
Christ? Who spoke to me about my soul outside 
of my immediate family and relatives? — I can only 
remember ]\Ir. Gaston. 

Oh, we do fail in this — Gregory's father has 
never known what it is to be idle in this respect, 
since he became a Christian, which was before he 
was fifteen. 

We pray that the Spirit may not pass us by, but 
we let the Spirit pass by. The blind men heard that 
it was Jesus that was passing by— some one must 
have told them. Jesus would have passed, we may 



Princeton's great f.kvjval. 67 

suppose, had He not beard that cry. So now we 
forget to tell our friends and those about that He is 
passing by, that He is near, but may soon be far 
from them. 

Cannot the Christians of Mauch Chunk get to 
work for Jesus, not only have the armor on but 
keep it bright in the service? Had I not seen the 
work here I should have been surprised to hear of 
's conversion. I can believe God in every- 
thing. I do believe; indeed I know that if Chris- 
tians go to work, there will be a work of grace be- 
gun. God says prove me. Mr. Cree told us of the 
work in the inquiry room. I send you some pas- 
sages. They will be useful for any of you — for 
much depends on our ability to point souls to 
Christ, and the way we do it. 

Find what is the difficulty first. 

If a backslider, turn to Jer. ii, 13, Two sins, verse 
19. Wickedness, Jer. iii, 12, Hosea xiv, 4. 

For one not under conviction, Rom. iii, 22. 

Great sinners must be soothed, Is. i. Why scarlet? 
it is an indestructible color. It must be crimson 
blood for crimson sins. 

False peace — not under conviction, Jer. vi. Time 
to come — Pharaoh's "Tomorrow." Ex. viii, 10. 

Seek while He is near. 

** Believe," John iii. 

John V, 24. Ask one to read that and weigh the 
words — Hath everlasting life. When? Hath, if one 
believes; then ask if he believes he has everlasting 
life now. 



68 



HENRY HOKACE AVEBSTER. 



Different words used, Receive, Come, Trust, 
Take, Rev. xxii:!/. 

"Will you not see what can be done? Many doubt 
our sincerity, because we never tell them that they 
are lost unless they trust in Jesus. They say Chris- 
tians would tell us we are lost and undone, if they 
believed it. Moody says that where one man reads 
the Bible, one hundred read us. We ought to be 
living epistles. See that something is done to 
bring down the blessing from the big cloud over- 
hanging you; prayer is that which opens the door of 
mercy. If we pray, and do not look for an answer, nor 
work for that blessing, we cannot expect to receive 
it. In all probability I have not said or accom- 
plished what I desired. A minister seems to me to 
be a commissioned officer in the army of the Lord. 
It was Moses who was to speak to the people to go 
forward. A minister unsupported by his people, is 
very much like a company listening to the officer 
talk and fully appreciating it, yet doing nothing. I 
believe there are many souls waiting and longing to 
be spoken with. A minister can not speak as effect- 
ively to one, as some personal friend can to his 
own friend. Run, speak to tliis young man; this, a 
particular one, to whom you can speak, w^ho would 
not listen to me, or one to whom I could speak, and 
not you. I have spoken to my special friends here, 
and not to every one. 

, and are ones in whom I am 

interested. might have some influence on 

the first two. 



pkinceton's great kevival. 69 

May the Lord revive his work at home in all the 
churches, and in your heart, and the hearts of all 
your children. 

With my warmest love to you, my dear mother, 
sisters and brothers and friends, I am, 

Your loving son, 
Henry H. Webster. 



That this letter did great good we are assured. It 
is true, it did not awaken the people as he had 
hoped and prayed, still it greatly stimulated his 
friends and paved the way for the earnest fruitful 
work among the railroad men, in which Henry and 
his friends engaged soon after his return from col- 
lege. 

The revival continued to hold the attention of the 
students long after the first intensity of its coming 
had passed away. Henry in his diary, some weeks 
after, speaks of the splendid meetings, and of the 
requests for prayers for friends, presented by those 
present. He continues: "How happy I am, 'No 
condemnation!' Really God is good to me. What 
shall I render to Him for all his mercies shown? 
My first verse in Daily Light wa;-, 'What man is he 
that feareth the Lord? him shall He teach in the 
way that He shall choose.' I want God to choose 
for me in all things. Not my will but thine be 
done." 

The results of this revival in Princeton were most 
satisfactory. Every man in the college was earn- 



10 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

estly spoken to by his particular friend and urged 
to decide the important question. Think of it! A 
whole college bent on evangelistic work! And ere 
the senior year closed, but a few had refused to 
come out on the side of the Master. As the term 
drew to an end, his activity seemed to increase, he 
was everywhere and in everything. He grows 
somewhat sad, at times, as he thinks of the day fast 
approaching when pleasant ties will be sundered 
and old friendships broken, never, perhaps, to be 
renewed. About a month prior to commencement, 
he permits himself to put such sentiments in his di- 
ary. He says: "Schanck at ii., with him our lect- 
ures and recitations closed. I felt sad at the 
thought. How good God has been to me, in this 
four years' course. My verse today was, 'The Lord 
is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble.' I 
thanked Him and prayed Him to make me grateful. 
Wrote a line to Ma, to thank her for her kindness. 
Caught ball till 1:30. * * * Prep, service 
at Philadelphia Society. Dr. McCosh spoke admir- 
ably. 'I will meet you ai; the mercy seat.' (i) We 
talk with God, (2) He hears us, (3) He speaks to 
us, (4) We listen. * * * " 

This feeling of regret seems to have pervaded the 
entire senior class and we find them drifting in and 
out of one another's rooms, walking and talking to- 
gether, more than at any other time of their four 
years' course. Webster tells us of some of these 
pleasant times: "Singing on the campus. Walked 
with Henry [J. Bayard], said goodbye to Mr. Woods, 



Princeton's great revival. 71 

up in Martin's, Duff and maple sugar, Henry [J. 
Bayard] Jimmie and Pope. Woods set up sodas. 
Walk around triangle and singing, like old times. 
Pope and I sang some. Bed 11:45." 

These pleasant, profitable college days at last 
came to a close and commencement day found 
Webster standing well up, in the grade of his class. 
Good-byes were said, promises of eternal friend- 
ships exchanged, as is usual in all commencements, 
and the class of '76 went its several ways. 

On his departure from Princeton, he carried with 
him a little book, containing the autographs of the 
members of his class. Besides their names, some of 
his classmates had written beneath their autographs 
an expression of their regard for the owner of the 
book, one of which is worth mentioning. It may 
be said to be applicable, not only to Henry Web- 
ster's college days, but to his whole life. "If Web- 
ster," wrote this student friend of his, "If Webster 
would work with but half the zeal for his own inter- 
est, with which he w^orks for the good of others, no 
human power could prevent him from becoming a 
great man." Shortly after the death of her son, 
Mrs. Webster received from a gentleman, who had 
been a lower classman, at Princeton, during Web- 
ster's senior year, the following letter: 



" Your noble son was several classes ahead of me in 
college, so that I rather knew of him than knew him; 
but even had I not afterward become acquainted 



72 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

with you and your family, had I never again seen 
him, he would have lingered in my memory as one 
of a band of devoted Christians, who were univer- 
sally respected by their classmates for their unques- 
tioned and admirable piety and whose influence was 
wholly for good. Could you have seen the quiet 
life of your son during those years among his fel- 
low students, and understood the helpfulness of his 
example to many a young Christian, with whom 
perhaps he never exchanged a word, and whose 
name even, perhaps, he knew not, you would have 
daily offered special thanksgiving to God and mag- 
nified the Lord who did great things for you." 

This tribute by a student who knew Webster but 
slightly when in college, and which testifies to his 
interest in those he did not know personally, is 
confirmed by a paper which Webster wrote almost 
a year after leaving college. The paper relate3 
to one known only to himi on account of his 
loneliness and isolation. In the early part of Henry 
Webster's senior year, one of the lower classmen 
died. He was a new student, in his fresh year and 
almost an entire stranger in the college. His family 
and friends lived at too great a distance, it seems, to 
reach him ere he passed away. As a consequence, 
he died among entire strangers and was buried in 
the "students' plot," at Princeton. Henry Webster's 
warm heart went out in sympathy, when he heard 
the case, to the poor stranger, and his lonely death 
made a great impression on him. The circumstances 
surrounding it he never forgot, and so strongly 



riilivCETON's GREAT KEYIA'AL. 73 

did they impress themselves upon his mind, that a 
year afterward, he wrote a paper called, "Two Sab- 
baths in Princeton," the central thought of which is 
the lonely death of this freshman. The lesson he 
draws from this event and his description of scen- 
ery with its effect upon those present, are well 
worth reading. It has been thought best to insert 
it at this place, at the close of his college course, 
rather than a year later, when it was written. 

TWO SABBATHS IN PRINCETON. 

The leaden sky of the second Sabbath of October 
told what the day would be. 

It was not one of those bright days when one 
feels like throwing open the windows of the soul 
and looking on the bright side of the world. The 
outlook was not cheering. On all sides decay and 
change were vividly stamped. The trees were part- 
ing slowly with their rich foliage — the low gales as 
they passed through the trees sang a requiem for 
the passing season. One by one the leaves which 
had long clung to the branch came fluttering down 
slowly and mingled with the others ready to decay. 

To look out was only to make one look within. 
It seemed a funeral day of nature. Her garb was 
the varied colored leafage. But around, it was cold 
and gloomy. In thought and meditation would the 
eye be cast upon the ground, and the ear heard no 
sound of bird, only the rustling of leaves beneath. 

The divine service was consonant with nature, and 



74 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



when the minister announced his text, "We all do 
fade as a leaf," everyone was ready to say how fit- 
ting to the time. The hymns that were sung 
seemed pitched in a minor key. One of them grand 
and awful — ''That day of wrath, that dreadful 
day," was sung with unusual impressiveness. The 
organ pealed them forth as a miserere. Everything 
spoke of man's mortality in clear certain tones not to 
be mistaken. We believe all mortal but ourselves, yet 
all with which we are connected teach a different 
lesson. But how vain man's teaching and that of 
nature without the light of revelation. To speak 
reverently, a death on that day would have seemed 
to be a complete conclusive argument to convince 
all that man at his best state is vanity. 

Another week of college life had but half gone 
by. The merry hour of noon had come and with it 
the shout and laugh of the crowds as they rushed 
after the bounding ball. The ball had been driven 
near the goal and there the numbers were. Watch- 
ing the other post a few players were standing. 
They are told of the death of a member of the 
newly entered class; only a few hear of his sudden 
departure. Few knew he was sick; fewer still were 
acquainted with him. He had come an entire 
stranger to college from one of the Eastern states, 
had lived in town away from the students. Only a 
month had passed since he entered college, and in 
that time when many make friendships that last 
through life, he was knovv-n to but few beyond 
those who sat near him in class. 



rUINCETON's GREAT KEVIVAL. 75 

Only a few days before, his father had been at his 
room, and then left him never to see him again. In 
his sickness, which was short, kind hands ministered 
to his wants. Letters and telegrams to his father 
failed to reach him or bring an answer. Far from 
home and those who loved him, with none at his 
side who were bound to him by ties of relation- 
ship — alone — he was not alone. He had long 
had for his friend the Friend of sinners — Jesus of 
Nazareth. Into his loving arms he fell asleep and 
the angels carried him into Abraham's bosom. 

The college bell as it rang out the hour of seven, 
seemed to hush the wind which had wailed all the 
night long and ushered in a bright, clear, delight- 
some Sabbath. The heart bounded with life, and 
the whole body kept time to the quick beating of 
that drum as it sent life and energy and joy march- 
ing through the frame. Far away, maybe forty 
miles, the eye rested upon hills raising their heads 
to reach the bending sky; and the whole gently 
sloping landscape between spoke of peace and 
quiet. 

Look another way: More than eighty '79 men, 
their elastic, quick step changed into a slow, steady 
tread, are following their classmate's body into the 
chapel, while the tolling bell calls the whole college 
to their accustomed place of worship. The organ 
ceases. The services begin. Never before in the 
history of the classes present had a funeral taken 
place in the chapel. The preacher spoke of the 
resurrection and told of the hope of the departed. 



76 HENJKY HORACE WEBSTEK. 

His class preceded the body, the faculty and the 
classes in order composed the train. Very long was 
the procession. Few could expect such a number 
of good and great men to follow them to their rest- 
ing-place. 

Nor was the place of burial an ordinary one. 
Within that enclosure sleep the good and great of 
more than a century, men distinguished in arts, 
literature and in politics, eminent in all the learned 
professions, skilled in war, conspicuous in peace. 
Such were those lying there. 

Sympathizing heaven marks that procession as it 
enters, and now, as it gathers around the open 
grave. There were classmates, there the old and 
the young; the man who has reached the height of 
learning, the youth just beginning the ascent. 

Nearly always, one lacerated and bleeding heart 
follows in sorrow the dear dust to its last rest. 
Here was none. No father to mourn that the ''staff 
on which he should lean was broken before those 
years of weakness came to him." No fond mother 
to be in anguish for her child, anguish which she 
only knows. Nor was there a sister, brother or 
friend of his childhood days. Sad, doubly sad. As 
the body was lowered into the grave, no one looked 
in only to fall back crushed and overcome by the 
thought of what hopes were there buried, how pre- 
cious was the form now to be hid from sight. At 
this moment the trained voices of the Glee Club 



sang; 



'Asleep in Jesus; blessed sleep," 



I'liixc Eton's grea^ revival. '77 



That fitting night song for those who wake in a bet- 
ter world. 

They buried him in the students' lot. There lie 
those who have died while in college and whose 
homes were far away. Hearts ache and grow heavy 
as one reads the inscriptions on the monuments 
reared by their classmates, how this one left his 
happy Southern home to find in the North a grave. 
Still others from different states came to this seat 
of learning, who before their college course was 
finished had come to the end of their journey. 

Lonely sleepers in the old Princeton graveyard, 
let me think of you the sweet and comforting 
thought: — 

Asleep in Jesus; far from thee 
Thy kindred and their graves may be; 
Securely shall thy ashes lie, 
Waiting the summons from on high." 

Two Sabbaths — how different — both teachers of 
the same lesson in the same school. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WORK AMONG THE RAILROAD MEN. 

We would not go very wide of the truth, if we 
were to declare that the results of the revival in 
Princeton were felt all -over the country. When the 
class of 1876, the class which had been the chiei 
worker in the great movement, which brought into 
the fold so many of the unconverted, separated and 
went its several ways, it carried with it, in the 
hearts of its members, this intense desire to work 
for the Master, which had been a potent factor in 
the work in the college. Naturally, wherever a 
member of that class took up his abode, there 
would be felt his influence for Christ, and there 
would he be found working to save souls. That 
this was the case we know for a fact, for Henry 
Webster tells us in his diary of several of his class- 
mates, who, while at home on their spring vacation, 
succeeded in awakening the working Christians of 
their individual church and through them, the 
others, and so until a revival was begun. 

It was Webster's hope that this blessing might be 
accorded to his native town, Mauch Chunk, as we 
have seen in the letter to his mother, during the 
progress of the revival at Princeton. To bring 



wuiix amonct the kailkoad men. 79 

about this result, he worked and prayed all the lat- 
ter half of his senior year. 

It was during his visit home, in April, and while 
his mind was still intent on hopes of a revival, that 
his attention seems to have been called to the relig- 
ious needs of the railroad men of his town. They 
had always interested him, as a class, and on fre- 
quent occasions he had spoken with those of them 
he knew well, on religious subjects. He saw that as 
a class they were non-church goers, and his plan 
was to start a meeting for men only, which would 
appeal to them, as railroad men. He decided that 
the speakers as tar as possible should be drawn 
from among Christians at work on the railroads, 
whose shops and roundhouses were in the town, 
and that the topics for the prayer meeting should 
bear, as closely as possible, on railroad ideas. How 
well he succeeded in this we shall see farther on. 
His previous experience in Princeton stood him in 
good stead here and in a very few days after his 
resolution was taken he was able to begin his meet- 
ings. He tells us in his diary something of the 

start: "Met B ; said he would get names of 

good men to hold and speak at the meetings. He 
is a good, live Christian — takes his religion on his 

engine. Talked with C and D and 

B — again as he came down (after his 'run' with 

his engine). * * * Saw Mr. , asked him 

to speak at the meeting. Prayer meeting. Told a 
little — fifteen minutes — about revival in Princeton, 
N. J. Large and good meeting.'- Again later on 



80 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



we see how active he was obliged to be, how con- 
stantly on the go, in order to get these meetings 

started. For instance: "Saw B— — C , an old 

engineer; he advised me to see some men at Pack- 
ertown. After dinner, rode down on freight caboose 

to Packertown; saw some men, especially R 

of 739 Monmouth — another live man. He was to 
make arrangements at Lehighton for a meeting. 
Got on train and found J and T . 



G met us at the depot. J and T— 

spoke to a large meeting." Originally it was Web- 
ster's intention to hold these meetings in the round- 
house of the railroad, where the engines were laid up 
after their day's run. While negotiations were on 
foot, to this end, the "Diligent Hose," the local fire 
company, kindly offered the use of its building and 
Webster and his friends gladly accepted. From 
this time on, therefore, meetings were held in this 
place weekly, and at times when the interest seemed 
to warrant it, they were held nightly. Webster fol- 
lowed his old plan of personal work, and no oppor- 
tunity was lost, when a favorable opening occurred, 
of presenting Christ's offer of salvation to these 
men, who were so constantly exposed to injuries 
and death on the railroad. He sought them out in 
the roundhouse, in the shops, on the train and in 
the freight caboose. He strove to win their confi- 
dences, to make them his friends and thus be able 
to present Christ and Him crucified. 

It must be borne in mind, that all the time he was 
carrying on this active evangelistic work, he was, 



WORK AMONa THE KAILKOAD MEN. 81 

also, busily engaged in an endeavor to locate him- 
self in some sort of business. His mind does not 
seem to have been harrassed, by any fears as to his 
future, either. His faith in God's providence was 
so strong and his belief in his guidance so firm, that 
he went calmly on with the work, sure all would 
come out right and that a way would be opened in 
his own good time. 

These meetings for the railroad men, were very 
dear to his heart and he worked untiringly to make 
them attractive to the men. He was always pres- 
ent and always endeavored to speak with some of 
the men at the close of the exercises. He men- 
tions in his diary one or two such interviews, which 
are most interesting. At one of the meetings, 
he seems to have spoken to several, without having 
obtained a chance to speak with one, for whose wel- 
fare he was particularly anxious. After recounting 
some facts concerning the meeting he continues: 
"Went away after saying good-bye to all and had gone 
nearly to the street on which the graveyard is, when 

I thought I would go back and speak to X . 

Called him out — he had not read the chapter — 
told him I was praying for him. He thanked me. 
Told him he had the privilege [of becoming a 
Christian] and urged him to act now. He said he 

would do something. Just then Y came out 

He was very nearly killed on Friday, and we walked 
away together. He told me of his narrow escape 
and we soon got on religious subjects. He said he 
was praying for faith and strength. It seemed that 



82 



HENRY HORACE AVEBSTER. 



he needed to decide (he is one for whom we have 
prayed for some time), so I asked him if he would 
like to look at what the Bible said. Yes, he would. 
When to come to Christ? Whenever it suits you. 
Now, he said, it suits me. We went in — I prayed; 
then I asked what was the matter. He seemed to 
want to know what was the first thing to be done. 
He was in earnest and said if he began he wanted to 
be a whole Christian and not like those who get re- 
ligion and then are as bad as before. Showed him 
some verses, about this, that he is accountable only 
for himself — then asked him what hindered him 
from accepting Christ. Nothing, he said, so he 
prayed and gave himself to Christ. I prayed and 
soon we parted." 

Later on we find him following up these men who 
have come out for Christ, watching over them, en- 
couraging them and endeavoring to help them to 
keep in the straight path. He tells us that he "met 

A at the market house, had a talk with him 

urging him to make an honest effort for his salva- 
tion. Met B— — C just after, said he was dis- 
couraged — tried to encourage him and tell him the 

way. Met D E , Sr., had a good talk with 

him — in real earnest about religion. Asked him to 
make one honest effort, he said he would." But 
Webster does not trust to chance, in his meeting 
with the railroad men. As we have stated before, 
he sought them out, in their familiar haunts. He 
tells us in another place in his diary of a certain en- 
gineer about whom he is anxious. He missed one 



WOliK AMONG THE RAILK0A1> MEN. 



83 



chance to speak with him and now he endeavors to 
gain another. His second attempt is not so suc- 
cessful and he sadly records: "An opportunity 
gone can't be recalled; his engine had come [when 
Webster reached the roundhouse] and he gone 
home. From the bridge, saw boys playing at Coal- 
port and so started hoping to see him [the engi- 
neer]; played ball awhile, and before I left he came 
out but did not have chance to speak with him." 

He is somewhat troubled at his failure, but feels 
that there may be a good reason why he is not per- 
mitted to speak to this engineer, for he continues: 
"My experience lately has been that the Spirit is 
guiding me and teaching me for what and whom to 

pray. * * * Long talk with X Y , who 

has lately given himself to Jesus. Spoke to him at 
meeting last Sabbath — not decided then — he spoke 
all the way through so humbly and determinately — 
nothing in him, but all in Christ." 

For the welfare and progress of these meetings, 
Webster was willing to do anything, to undertake 
any task. He planned and labored and prayed and 
suffered nothing to discourage him. So as better 
to reach the men promptly and in good season, he 
edited, each week, a column in the local paper, 
entitled "Light on the Road," and devoted exclu- 
sively to topics for the prayer meetings to follow. 
To this list of topics, it was his habit to add some 
intelligence calculated to especially interest railroad 
men. This plan, begun at the inception of the 
meetings, was still carried on by him after he had 



84 HENKY HOKACK WEBSTER. 

left his home and entered into business in New 
York City. 

In the management and selection of these topics 
Webster developed a most happy faculty, and two 
of these topics which are inserted here show his 
plain, forcible way of treating this branch of his 
work. 

Light on the Road. 

FOLLOW THOU JIB. JOHN XXI, 52. 

October 31, Friday. Thou art my helper and deliverer, Ps 
xi, 17. 

November i, Saturday. Only take heed to thyself and keep 
thy soul diligently, Deut. iv, 9. 

November 2, Sunday. He that winneth souls is wise, Prov. 
xi, 30. 

November 3, Monday. Lord, all my desire is before thee, Ps. 
xxxviii, g. 

November 4, Tuesday. I am my beloved's and my beloved is 
mine, Song of Solomon, vi, 3. 

November 5, Wednesday. Apply thine ear to the words of 
knowledge, Prov. xxiii, 12. 

November 6, Thursday. His right hand doth embrace me, 
Song of Solomon, ii, 6. 

Mr. J. E. Sutherland, better known to the public 
as " Bob Hart," the negro minstrel, led the railroad 
men's meeting last Sabbath week at the Grand Cen- 
tral depot, New York. He has recently been con- 
verted, and having given himself to the Lord, he is 
telling the glad news in the city and towns adjacent. 
For ten years he served on the Erie, Pennsylvania 
and New York Central railroads, being advanced 
from newsboy to fireman. He later joined a min- 



WORK AMONG THE RAILROAD MEN. 85 

strel troupe and soon became prominent, and com- 
manded large salaries; all of which he has relin- 
quished to engage in his present work. 

It is pleasant to note that the attendance at the 
new rooms in the freight depot is much beyond ex- 
pectation. A new attraction is a piano, the gift of 
the first vice-president of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. 
Company, 

Lately, a manager in the amusement line, in an 
Eastern city, was led to consider his ways. The 
place of his conversion was this city. Three men 
on their knees in prayer — no strange sight — who are 
they? One is the former minstrel; the other, until 
a few years, a hotel-keeper, together they are pray- 
ing for this manager who kneels with them. When 
the manager prayed, he said, "Oh, God! I will 
work for you until I wear my nails off." He had 
not been in a church for twenty-seven years, had 
not opened a Bible in fifteen, and then only when 
sworn as a witness, he looked to see what book it 
was. He could not name the first book of the New 
Testament. 

When such men are seen entering the kingdom, 
together with Hogan, the prize fighter, and Jerry 
McAuley, the river thief, and yet moral men, men 
who never harm any one, are refusing the invitation, 
we find that men have not changed much since it 
was said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the 
kingdom of God before you." Yes, to such the 
message of pardon, mercy and abundant grace is glad 
tidings,- good news, and blessed is the messenger. 



86 HENKY HORxiCE WEBSTER. 

Speaking of the good news reminds me of the 
great exposition Rev. James A. Spurgeon, brother 
of the great London preacher, gave, while in New 
York, on the passage, "How beautiful upon the 
mountains are the feet of Him," etc., Isaiah iii, 7. 
He said: ''You remember that Jerusalem was situ- 
ated on a hill, and that it was surrounded by mount- 
ains on all sides. Now, if an army was fighting be- 
yond that mountain range, the first important news, 
whether of victory or defeat, would come by a mes- 
senger who would be visible on top of the mountain. 
To the anxious city, waiting tidings of its army, the 
appearance of a messenger on the sky line would be 
of intense interest. 'How does he come?' would be 
the question asked. Does he come slowly, with 
downcast face and weary gait, as if oppressed with 
his message? Or does he come joyously, w'ith swift 
and eager steps, as if he could almost fly over the 
valley in his desire to bring in welcome tidings? 
Long before he reaches the city his pace tells what 
news he carries." 

New York City. W. 

Light on the Road. 

TE ABE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE; THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD, 1 Cor. Vi, 20. 

August 15, Friday. I will be as the dew unto Israel, Hosea 
xiv, 5. 

August 16, Saturday. Not slothful in business, fervent in 
spirit, serving the Lord, Rom. xii, ii. 

August 17, Sunday. Lay up his words in thine heart. Job xxii, 
22. 

August 18, Monday. Every man's work shall be made mani- 
fest, I Cor. iii, 13. 



WOKK AMONG THE KA.1LK(»AI) MEN. ST 

August 19, Tuesday. They shall trust in the name of the 
Lord, Zeph. ili, 12. 

August 20, Wedoesday. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, i Cor. 

i, 30- 

August 21, Thursday. Purge out therefore the old leaven, i 
Cor. V, 7 

THE CONDUCTOR S HYMN. 

Lead, kindly light! amid the encircling gloom, 

Lead Thou me on; 
The night is dark, and I am far from home, 

Lead Thou me on; 
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see 

The distant scene; one step enough for me. 

I learned to love this hymn, as a conductor sang 
it over to me. The tune was written by one whom 
v/e both knew. The voice is silent in death, and 
the hand that wrote the music has since forgotten 
her cunning. While I was camping in the deep 
woods, far from postal and telegraphic communica- 
tion, the conductor received the signal calling him 
away from earth. My feelings did not overcome 
me as I passed his office, for often in coming from 
the late train, the light was out, and he had gone 
home. The first impulse in the morning would 
have been to see him and tell, of camp life, and plan 
for the next "pigeon roost." He was gone — yet 
everything was instinct with him — a step on the 
sidewalk — the engine bell, or whistle, brought the 
dear man back. My young heart was broken. I 
sat at home and cried all day. Towards evening — 
how often I had gone to meet him at his train — I 



88 HEXKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

walked to his quiet resting place on the hillside. 
Tears failed me; nothing here made me think of 
him. Something seemed to tell me that he had 
entered the gates of that city of which the Lamb is 
the light thereof. 

His picture is in my hand — the sun of life's morn- 
ing had not come to midday— rthe artist was not 
careful to conceal the boyish vivacity of the eyes — 
the closed lips seem waiting the wilt's direction to 
open and flood the face with smiles. He was what 
college boys call popular — every one knew him, 
and as his train hurried by, the trackmen would 
look for a wave of his hand — a handshake pro tem. 
Those who greeted him were sure at parting to be 
laughing or put into good humor. He loved the 
hymn, and with appropriateness at his funeral, and 
that of his friend, this sweet song was sung. 

Never does the hymn come to my notice but the 
years of intercourse seem yet unnumbered, and an 
inspiration is given me for faithful effort for my 
conductor's friends on the road. 

It may be selfish — still often has been the wish 
that he had seen the interest taken in railroad men 
— with what spirit he would have entered into this 
work with his pleasant voice, -his youthful and in- 
tense interest, and his pow^r of attracting men. 

Look one moment at the hymn. The lines quoted 
breathe the humble prayer of a weary pilgrim of 
night, that he may safely reach his home. Often 
the scream of the engine, louder than the storm 
that is raging, awakens us, and we think of the 



WORK AMONCr THE RAILROAD MKN. 89 

faithful man at his post, and his crew ready for duty 
— we think, pity, and fall asleep. 

Our hymn suggests one step in advance — pray 
that He, to whom the darkness and light are both 
alike, will lead them to the journey's end, and to 
those awaiting them. And it is a personal prayer, 
so fitted for men on "night runs." They know the 
need of a strong, bright headlight as they rush on 
the rails and dash into the darkness. Many of our 
railroad men do not pray — they have never put the 
golden key to the door of heaven. Ah, how shall 
they reach home and friends beyond! Prayer and 
personal effort for individuals will make you shine 
as the stars forever and ever among the Saints in 
light. W. 



These topics, which head the little chat, were 
taken by the men as they went out on their trains, 
in their caboose cars, and even tacked up in the 
cabs of the engines, so that they were widely dis- 
tributed over the road. Announcements for special 
meetings were treated in the same way, almost al- 
ways insuring a crowded room. As these meetings 
progressed Webster devised new ideas, in the shape 
of a topic or a card of invitation, calculated to at- 
tract the attention of the men. Thus, at one time 
he headed his list of topics "Train Orders," ar- 
ranged in appropriate railroad terms, and with terse 
scriptural references. At another time, he added 
to the list of topics a lot of suggestions, most valu- 



90 HENKY HORACE WEBSTEK. 

able to railroad men, denominated: **What to do 
Until the Doctor Comes." Another attractive de- 
vice was an invitation card, the body of which was 
red (danger) on one side, and white (all right) on 
the reverse. Speaking of this particular card, one 
of his friends says: *' I remember to have seen one 
of these cards in the cab of a locomotive which had 
come through a wreck on one of our railroads." 

Song, or rather singing, was another of Webster's 
strongholds. He had learned when a boy at his 
mother's knee many of the beautiful old hymns 
with which all Christians are familiar. He had 
sung them over and over in the family circle until 
they had come to be a delight to his soul. When at 
Princeton and during the revival there he had 
learned the power of song to move and hold the 
unconverted, and as soon as his railroad meetings 
were started, he made singing one of the chief at- 
tractions. Frequently at these meetings it becamxC 
necessary for him to start the tune and, as musicians 
express it, sustain the singing. At such times, he 
greatly deplored his lack of fine musical talent, yet, 
as one of the railroad men said of him, " He was al- 
ways ready to make use of the measure of his 
ability as a singer, in witnessing for the Master and 
in helping others. Frequently he would bring to 
the meeting a new hymn, which had been blessed 
to himself, and ask us to join in the endeavor to 
learn it, and share with him the enjoyment and 
blessing." 

Perhaps one of the strongest holds Webster had 



WORK AMOKO THE EAILROAD MEN. 91 

on the railroad men, and which at the same time 
was an important factor in drawing them to the 
meetings, was his habit of calling them by their 
Christian or given names. Referring to this, one of 
his friends relates: "At the close of the meeting, 
Webster stationed himself near the door and always 
had a friendly handshake and cordial greeting for 
the men and boys, addressing each by a timely 
word, concerning himself or some person or thing 
in which he knew the person to be interested. * * 
* He called them all by their correct names and 
would often speak of them or to them by their rail- 
road nicknames, and once having met a man and 
conversed with him, he never forgot him. It is a 
matter of wonder how he carried in his mind a 
knowledge of the everyday affairs and surroundings 
of the different fellows. By this means, he reached 
the matter of personal salvation in the case of the 
unregenerate in the most easy and natural manner." 
While engaged in the detail, which of necessity 
accompanied such a work as that among the rail- 
road men, Webster still found time to look ahead 
and plan for a betterment of the incoming genera- 
tion. To that end he took hold of the boys of the 
town. He saw in the boys of the railroad men, the 
railroad men of the future. He felt that to take 
them at an early stage and help them to "start 
right," he would be lightening their future burdens 
and making their lives better and higher. He or- 
ganized, therefore, in connection with the men's 
meeting, a Bible class for the boys. As long as he 



9; 



HENKY HOKACE WEBSTER. 



remained in Mauch Chunk, he personally prepared 
their lesson for each Sabbath and then heard them 
recite. Even after he removed, permanently, to 
New York City, he continued to prepare their les- 
sons, hearing" them recite on the occasion of his 
next visit. 

The result of this work among railroad men was 
lasting, and its influence was felt over a large ex- 
tent of country. From Texas, there came word to 
his friends of the conversion of a man, who, as a 
stranger, attended one of the railroad meetings in 
Mauch Chunk. From Mexico, of another who was 
led to Christ through reading an account of the 
meetings. 

In 1887 Henry Webster left his home and began 
work in New York City. But, distance or absence 
was not suffered to lessen his influence, or cause 
him to relax his efforts in behalf of the railroad 
men's meeting. Speaking of this, a friend of his re- 
lates: "After he went to New York, this meeting 
was always on his heart. He prepared the 'Topics' 
for the year, secured speakers from a distance, 
wrote to the men when they were in joy or sorrow 
and kept up such an intercourse with them that 
when he came home to spend the Sabbath, he knew 
as much of their affairs as if he still lived among 
them." Another speaks of this work: " Even after 
his business connections took him to New York, he 
kept a firm hold upon the work among the railroad 
men in Mauch Chunk. Each week he was advised 
by postal, of the attendance at the Sabbath meet- 



WOKK AMONG THE KAILROAD MEN. 93 

ings and other facts of interest. He used these 
cards in his own peculiar way in preparing the an- 
nual reportj which was read each year, at the anni- 
versary services." Again, this same friend says: 
"The announcement that Henry was to be at a rail- 
road meeting, on a particular Sabbath, was always 
received with delight, and even the little boys — 
among whom he had many warm friends — have 
spoken to me of his presence in town, with their 
faces all aglow with pleasure. He would usually 
send cards to a number of railroad men before 
coming, telling them of his intended visit and in- 
viting them to be at the meeting and then follow up 
the invitation, as far as possible, by a call. Then, 
on his arrival, he would start early for the meeting, 
so as to have time for this work and to visit the 
sick and aged on the way." Naturally, these meet- 
ings attracted the men, and it was no uncommon 
Occurrence for men to walk four and five miles to 
attend when they learned that Henry Webster was 
to be present. 

Mention has been made of Webster's constant 
thought of particular men and of his indisposition 
to permit either absence or distance to interfere 
with his communication with them. This fact is 
most beautifully illustrated in a brief paper on his 
life, written a short time after his death. In it the 
writer, a railroad man, says: "He never allowed 
his absence from town to end his interest in a fel- 
low. If a man left for other parts, to engage in a 
new position, he was quite sure to get a line from 



94 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



Henry, as soon as he learned of the change, ex- 
pressing interest in the man, and wishing him suc- 
cess, and always directing him for aid, to the source 
of all help. I think, in all of the many letters I 
have received from him, he never omitted to ac- 
company the subject matter with a helpful verse of 
Scripture. 1 shall never forget a letter written by 
him at the time of my departure from my home, to 
fill a position in a distant town. A new and a sor- 
rowful experience to me, giving up, as I then 
thought, for good, my home associations. It was 
just the kind of a letter for a boy leaving all that 
was dear to him to enter upon new and untried du- 
ties, about to form new acquaintances and friend- 
ships. He seemed to have prepared that letter un- 
der divine inspiration and to have timed it so as to 
reach me when I most needed a word of counsel 
and cheer." 

Numerous examples of a similar kind as the 
above could be given, if time and space permitted; 
those mentioned, however, suffice to show Webster's 
wonderful thoughtfulness and tender regard for all 
in whom he was in any way interested. 

One of the most important of the results arising 
from the railroad men's meeting, was the organiza- 
tion of a Young Men's Christian Association in 
Mauch Chunk. Soon after Webster started these 
meetings, he took steps to interest his townsmen in 
the project, but without success, and for two years 
the meetings were carried on in a place kindly 
granted to them by the local hose company, and 



wore: among the railroad men. 95 

without any form of organization Early in 1878 a 
great change took place. At the second anniversary 
services a wonderful interest was developed, ex- 
tending not only to the railroad men generally, but 
to the townspeople. . Attention was aroused, the 
project received a fresh stimulus, and for a time it 
looked as if the association were to succeed in secur- 
ing quarters of its own. But it proved to be only 
a spasm of public interest, and soon passed away. 

For twelve years repeated efforts were made to 
arouse public interest in a building for the associa- 
tion, by Mr. Webster. Again and again he was disap- 
pointed, but in no wise disheartened. Finally, thanks 
to perseverance and trust in his Master, his efforts 
were successful. A committee of five was named, 
of which Webster was made chairman, and full 
power was given them to raise monies and arrange 
for the erection of a building. From the start, 
Webster seems to hav^e succeeded in infusing this 
committee with his own strong faith and with an 
enthusiasm which nothing could withstand. Space 
fails me to relate the hard work done by that de- 
voted band in their efforts to secure the necessary 
funds for the much coveted building. Night and 
day they worked and prayed, until in September, 
1889, twelve years after the first efforts, they suc- 
ceeded in securing a site, upon which was erected, 
two years later, a building used and owned by the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Mauch 
Chunk. To Henry H. Webster, therefore, belongs 
the honor of having brought to a successful conclu- 



96 



HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 



sion the long struggle to obtain a suitable building 
for the Young Men's Christian Association of his 
native town. 

During the eighteen months which he spent in 
Mauch Chunk, subsequent to his graduation from 
Princeton College, in 1876, and prior to his depart- 
ure to New York City, in the fall of 1877, his life 
was one of constant activity and usefulness. Speak- 
ing of this year and a half, one who was very near 
to him all the time, gives this remarkable testi- 
mony: "After his graduation Henry came home to 
rest some time before deciding upon a profession. 
With anyone else it could scarcely be called a rest- 
ing time, for every moment was occupied. He 
entered heartily into the social life of the town, and 
was very active in a literary society which had 
recently been organized by some of his friends. 
His experience and enthusiasm contributed largely 
to the success and enjoyment of the society that 
year. He started gospel temperance meetings in 
several places and conducted at least one each 
week. A detachment of the United States army 
was stationed in Mauch Chunk at that time, and 
Henry took a great deal of interest in the soldiers. 
He talked to them, listened to their stories, and 
tried to influence them for gfood. At his invitation 
many of the men attended the temperance meetings 
and signed the pledge. Several also were converted 
at the railroad men's meeting. 

" He was helpful in the church prayer meetings, 
young people's meetings, cottage prayer meetings, 



WORK AMONG THE RAILKOAD MEX: 97 

and all religious work. He was superintendent of a 
Sabbath school at Coal Port, about two miles away 
from home; he also taught the men's Bible class 
there. Into all this work he entered with his char- 
acteristic energy and enthusiasm and carefully pre- 
pared himself for each meeting. Every moment of 
his Sabbath was occupied. Before morning service 
he would often walk about two miles and hold a 
prayer meeting in a village destitute of all church 
privileges, and then return in time for church. 
About I o'clock he started for his Sabbath school, 
and when that was over, he went over the hills to 
Upper Mauch Chunk to the railroad men's meeting. 
In the evening he would often go to Coal Port 
again, and lead a prayer meeting. Or if he stayed 
at home, he went to church, and took part in the 
meeting our pastor held after the service. 

*' He devoted much of his time to a thorough, care- 
ful study of God's Word, which was always very 
precious to him. His friends will remember his 
familiarity with the Bible, and the ease with which 
he could turn to the passage he wanted. His Bible 
always lay open on a table in his room, so that as 
he moved about he might glance at it and fix some 
precious truth in his memory. 

"His journal and notes at that time show a rapid, 
constant growth in every Christian grace. I find 
such notes as these: * My whole class for Jesus,' 
and then the name of each man; 'My whole Sunday 
school for Jesus,' etc. There are lists of names of 
those for whom he was praying and records of per- 



98 



HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 



sonal conversations when he urged them to come to 
Christ." 

In reviewing an account of such work, such earn- 
est, untiring, faithful labor for the Master, one is 
filled with admiration at the wonderful life lived by 
this truly Christian young man. 




CHAPTER V. 

WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 

Somewhere about 1875 the Young Men's Christian 
Association began to feel the effect of an awakened 
popular interest in its work. Young men came to 
its building in numbers pleasant to contemplate and 
its membership roll swelled to agreeable propor- 
tions in consequence. To meet this increase in 
membership and mold it into material capable of 
doing effective Christian work, it became necessary 
for the association to assume a more aggressive 
tone; new lines of work were established, therefore, 
new ideas put into operation and a larger, fuller, 
grander sphere of usefulness was inaugurated. 

The opening of these new lines of work entailed 
additional labor upon the secretary and his assist- 
ants and the doors of the big building at Twenty- 
third street and Fourth avenue frequently closed 
upon them long after midnight. It was not very 
long, therefore, ere it was discovered by the direct- 
ors that more help was needed and that speedily, if 
the new impetus lately given to the work was to be 
continued. Our genial and warm-hearted friend, 
Robt. R. McBurney, the secretary of the New York 
association, was forthwith instructed to look about 



100 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

him and secure as his chief associate and helper 
some young man on whom he could place reliance, 
and who would be capable of acting for him in his 
absence. Above all. he was to secure a young man 
whose social nature was well developed and who 
would be likely to appeal to and hold those coming 
to the association rooms. 

Several months passed away and at the beginning 
of 1877, the association seemed no nearer securing 
the proper man than it had been at the start. 
Appearances, however, were deceptive, for the hour 
and the man were nearly at the point of joining. 

Among those who were members of the associa- 
tion at this time, there was a young graduate of 
Princeton College, class of 1876. who was engaged 
in the studv of medicine in the citv. He was a fre- 
quent visitor at the rooms of the association, and 
like most of the members, was personally known to 
the secretary, Mr. McBurney. One evening, in the 
course of a short conversation, Mr. McBurney asked 
him if. among his acquaintances or friends he could 
"tell him of a young man, a college graduate, who 
would be willing to come as his assistant." Speak- 
ing of this period in Webster's life, a member of his 
family relates as follows: At once he [the young 
medical student] thought of Henry, remembering 
his activity in the Philadelphia society in college 
and knowing that he was engaged in association 
work in Mauch Chunk. ]\Ir. McBurney at once 
wrote to him and asked him to come as his assist- 
ant, to try it, at least, for one month. The letter 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 



101 



was very vague and Henry had no idea what his 
duties would be, but it seemed best to accept the 
offer and go for the time specified, at least. You 
may remember that at that time, 1876-77, every- 
thing was very dull and there seemed to be no 
prospect of brighter times. Henry wrote to Mr. 
McBurney that he would try it, but could not come 
quite as soon as he requested. He was determined 
to spend his birthday, November 12, at home. 
Soon after that, probably about the middle of No- 
vember, 1877, h^ went to New York." 

Bidding farewell to home, friends and old associa- 
tions, in response to the call, Webster came to New 
York, and began the performance of the duties of 
an association secretary in November, 1877. At 
first it was decidedly up-hill work, everything was 
new to him— methods, men and surroundings — and 
he found it somewhat difficult to adjust himself to 
circumstances. Besides all this, he found life in a 
great city decidedly different from that to which he 
had been accustomed. He missed the pure mount- 
ain air, the beautiful scenery of his late home, and 
the abundant outdoor exercise to which he had 
grown accustomed. The entire change in his mode 
of life, the hard work, and the absence of all his 
near relatives, worked a decided alteration in Web- 
ster's manner, for a time. He lost much of his vi- 
vacity, his cheerfulness waned, he grew shy and 
somewhat reserved and to some seemed like an- 
other man. As time passed, however, and he ad- 
justed himself to his new condition of life, the 



102 HENRY HORACE ^VEBSTER. 

Webster of the new state was displaced, and the 
Webster of the old state, cheery, bright, sympa- 
thetic, active, earnest, returned in full force. He 
grew accustomed to his duties, enjoyed his work, 
and was, undoubtedly, of great use to the associa- 
tion, in holding the young men to their member- 
ship. 

About this time, he writes to his sister one of his 
characteristic letters, a letter such as only he could 
write. In it we see his bright, happy disposition, 
his desire to help all within his reach, his devotion 
to duty, a devotion which soon after forced him to 
give up his secretaryship. 



38 East Twenty-ninth street. New York. 
My Dear Sister: — 

Doesn't it seem funny that I am in New York liv- 
ing a life so different from you at home, coming 
home at 10 o'clock, passing none whom I know, 
walking to the top of the house and seeing none to 
speak with, when I know there is a handful at 
home who would be only too glad to welcome me? 
I must have seemed dull when at home at Christmas 
— to tell the truth, poor old Haz felt miserable 
when he got back — he must have taken cold on his 
way home. However, he is all right tonight or he 
would not talk so much of himself. Mr. Leisen- 
ring's $10, the books already received, and Mr. 
Goodwin's pass, have greatly encouraged me in the 
railroad work at home. The pass is signed by Mr. 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 103 

R. H. Sayre and is for the whole road — anyhow 
from L. & B. to Perth Amboy and branches — gay! 

My call on New Year's day, ahem! how could I 

get out of it? — cards were sent me by Miss . 

Resolved not to buy a coat; oh, no, but to make a 
call — bought a collar on my way to the office, ex- 
pecting to go in the afternoon. Hardly at the 
rooms [association] before the table cloths for the 
Park Theater men were found to be too small. 

Mrs. must be levied, and I offered to go — no 

gloves — minus the new collar. Asked for Mrs. 

— ; shown in parlor where I found Miss — , 

who received me most kindly. Mrs. and Miss 

appeared later and P had a nice call. The 

day with Mr. Sawyer's men was truly enjoyed by all, 
oh, it was nice. Sorry I can't give in detail my 
happy times. My "Uncle Tom" is awful nice, I am 
anxious to get it to you people, I know you will 
read it over again. Messrs. Morse & McB. have 
just gone to Washington to get President Hayes to 
speak at our anniversary. 

Mr. gave me a handsome necktie to be 

worn with a stand-up collar — he thinks such collars 

would become me. Mrs. wanted the chair, 

so it went by express yesterday. 

Thank Maggie for her note, thanks to all of you 
for the clothes. Ma's card this morning. You 
know how I would like to come; but a visit to 
Washington will spoil my chance. What a birthday 
letter this is, young 'un; sorry, but I am not ready 
Avith my items tonight. Am sorry I will not hear 



104 



HENKY HORACE WEBiTEK. 



Elsing Speak tomorrow — it's my night off, but my 
boss is away. Of course I did not write for tlie 
prize at home. 

1 have for you a rather nice umbrella. I may, by 
Saturday's 1:15 Central, send some things — if I do, 
I will send a card before, and with bundle the um- 
brella. My wishes are not well defined for }'our 
birthday, but you know the best things are desired 
for you by your old brother, 

My love to all. Haz. 



Having mastered the details of the great work in 
which he was engaged, Webster entered heart and 
soul into its advancement. Very useful to him, at 
this time, was his past experience, both in college 
and his native town. His old methods of gaining 
a man's confidence, and so gradually leading him to 
a higher life, were used with telling effect in his 
new position. 

The demands made upon the time and strength 
of a Young Men's Christian Association secretary, 
upon his cheerfulness, patience, tact, are very great. 
It has been a matter of wonder to many of us, how 
a man could stand so much work and yet keep 
mentally and physically well. In all this great 
amount of work Webster took a full part. He was 
never absent from his desk, and from early morning 
until late at night his hours were occupied with cor- 
respondence, the arrangement of the many minor 
details of association work, and in offering a cor- 



WITH THE NEW YOKK Y. M. C. A. 105 

dial, cheery welcome to the multitude of members 
and strangers that were continually coming and go- 
ing, a work of no mean importance. 

For two years and a few months Webster filled, 
most acceptably, the position of assistant secretary 
of the New York association. By this time, how- 
ever, the fall of 1879, he began to show signs of the 
severe work he was performing. He grew thin, 
was easily fatigued, and lost much of his forn^er 
elasticity. As was his custom, about Christmas 
time, he snatched a day or two from his duties, and 
ran down to visit his family. To those who had not 
seen him for a twelve months, his altered condition 
of health was most apparent, and they were greatly 
alarmed. They begged, implored him, to give up 
his secretaryship and return to his mountain home, 
there to regain health and strength. But Webster 
was deaf to all entreaties, at first, for he hr^d grown 
to love his work, and was loth to give it up. A few- 
more months passed, and then it became evident, 
even to himself, that his health and strength could 
not stand the strain to which he was subject, and so 
he reluctantly tendered his resignation. He tells 
us that he sorrowed greatly, at being forced to give 
up Young Men's Christian i\ssociation work, for 
good, as he thought. But it was not for good, as it 
afterwards proved, only the means taken by the 
Almighty to put him to better use in his work. 

Just prior to Webster's resignation, a firm of busi- 
ness men, old friends of his father, had offered him 
a position of trust in one of their offices situated at 



106 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

Elizabeth, N. J. Webster very gladly accepted the 
offer, and after a short period of rest, spent with hi? 
family, he went to Elizabeth, and commenced life 
as a business man. Here, as soon as he was settled 
in a boarding house, he began work as a helper in 
the Presbyterian church and Sunday school at 
Elizabethport, a suburb of the city. His life at this 
place was but a repetition of Mauch Chunk, of 
Princeton, of New York; he was instant in season 
and out of season, in presenting the call of his 
Master and striving to win souls to Him. Six 
months after his coming, however, his sojourn in 
Elizabeth came to an end. His employers trans- 
ferred him to a more responsible and lucrative posi- 
tion in their principal New York City office, a posi- 
tion Webster held up to the time of his death. 

Once again in New York City, after an absence of 
a little more than six months, Webster went at once 
to the association rooms and began that which v/as 
to be the greatest work of his life. His daily rou- 
tine, begun at this time, and followed almost with- 
out deviation for nearly eleven years, seems to have 
been as follows: Up early, morning devotions^ 
breakfast, and then to the association rooms for 
about an hour. He chose rooms near the associa- 
tion, on his return to the city, and always after, up 
to the time of his death, lived within a few blocks 
of the building. During this morning hour, spent 
at the association, he received and attended to his 
mail, which was large, welcomed early comers, and 
planned work which he wished to carry out, after busi- 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 



107 



ness hours, and in the evening. This much accom- 
plished, he left for his office in which he was usually 
engaged until about half-past four. But, during 
these hours of secular work, he was not idle. He 
believed in carrying a man's religion into his every 
act of life, and he strove to show how this could be 
done and well done. He was earnest and devoted 
to the business of his employers, and no'testimony 
received after his death speaks higher than that of 
those in whose interests he labored during the day. 
But, into this business life, at his desk, in the street, 
with employers, clerks and customers, he strove to 
inject the spirit of Christianity, and to influence 
them, at least, by his quiet example, to better and 
higher living. A trifling incident which came un- 
der the notice of the writer, will illustrate one of 
Webster's ways of using his influence for good. 
Having occasion, at one time, to call upon a client, 
with offices in one of the upper stories of the build- 
ing in which Webster was employed, a little card in 
the ascending elevator caught the writer's eye. It 
was about four inches by six, plain white and 
printed in good, clear, easily read type. There 
were only four lines in all, but each seemed to have 
been carefully considered, so as to crowd as much 
into the limited space as possible. It read some- 
thing like this: — 

"Association Hall, 23d street and 4th avenue! 
** Young Men's Rally on Sunday afternoon! 
" Good Singing! Good Speaking! 
"Come at 3:30 and Bring a Friend!" 



108 llEiSKY HOEACE WEBSTER. 

It was not a difficult matter to guess whose hand 
had placed that sign there; and when the elevator 
man was asked about it, he replied, with a smile of 
pleasure: "Ah, that's Mr. Webster, who put it up. 

He's down, beyant, in the office. Ah! he's 

the fine young man." A similar card was found in 
the other elevator, thus making it impossible for 
any visitor to the upper floors of the building, to 
escape the invitation to the Sunday afternoon meet- 
ings of the association. Work at the office finished, 
Webster returned to the association rooms and 
there resumed unfinished details of the morning. 
At 6 o'clock he repaired to his boarding house, 
dined, "brushed up," as he expressed it, and in 
about an hour was back at his work, at the Twenty- 
third Street rooms. From this hour until ii o'clock 
or thereabouts, he occupied himself with a variety 
of matters. There was always plenty of activity at 
the association rooms, of an evening, and Webster 
was quickly absorbed as a member of a number of 
the working committees. With the closing of the 
rooms, W^ebster repaired to his boarding house, and 
there, often until after midnight, he occupied him- 
self as we have seen, with the furtherance of the 
plans of the railroad men in his native town, with the 
guidance of the Cadets of Temperance, and the con- 
duct of the Bible class of railroad men's boys, also of 
the same place; and this large amount of work out- 
side of his business, he carried on up to the day 
when he was stricken with his fatal illness. During 
these eleven years of his life, from 1880 until 1891, 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 109 

Webster. performed nearly as much work as when a 
regular secretary of the association. All his spare 
time was devoted to the building up of the associa- 
tion and in the endeavor to make it a power among 
young men. Sundays, holidays, none were exempt, 
and it was a rare day that failed to find Webster at 
the rooms. One of his happiest thoughts, in this 
connection, was, that God had so arranged matters 
as to enable him to give the greater part of his time 
to association work and without any pecuniary com- 
pensation. Thus, like the Great Apostle, he sup- 
ported himself with the labor of his own hands, and 
gave his best efforts and thought, freely and with- 
out cost, to the Master, whom he so dearly loved. 
This, then, was his daily life for eleven years, an 
earnest, faithful, happy Christian, endeavoring with 
unflagging zeal to use all his powers to the best 
possible advantage for the furtherance of the king- 
dom of Christ among young men. 

In this his labor for Christ, he developed some 
qualities and methods which are not only well 
worth a recital, but which may be taken as exam- 
ples, by all engaged in Christian work. 

Perhaps the most prominent of these qualities or 
characteristics was his genial manner. His face al- 
ways wore a smile and he seemed to exhale kind- 
liness, gentleness, love. Some one has said of him 
that when he offered his hand in greeting to friend 
or stranger, he "put his heart in the palm." A man 
felt, on meeting him, that here was a friend indeed. 
In this connection, another young man speaking of 



110 HENEY HORACE AVEBSTEli. 

him after his death, said: "My acquaintance with 
Mr. Webster dated from 1882, on my first arrival in 
New York, and he was one of the first to make me 
feel that I had one friend in a city, which a few mo- 
ments before was all strange." Again, it was re- 
marked by a young man, that "Mr. Webster seemed 
to have known a fellow for a long time, the first 
time he met him. It didn't seem, somehow, when 
you were introduced to him, that you hadn't known 
him before. He acted just as if he was an old 
friend, right from the start. I don't mean that he 
was familiar, slapped a fellow on the back, and all 
like that, but, you know, he was dignified, and yet 
easy, and so kind and nice, and interested in a fel- 
low, that you thought him, from the start, the nicest 
young man you'd ever met." It would be difficult 
to find a more condensed and perfect description of 
Webster's manner when with young men; it is a fine 
word picture of Webster, as he appeared to the av- 
erage frequenter of the rooms of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. 

To this cordial manner, so attractive alike to 
friends and acquaintances, Webster added a per- 
sonal grasp, of each man, if it may be so expressed, 
which kept him in touch with all whom he met; 
that is to say, he kept track, in a measure, of men 
he met, learned of their homes, lives, business, and 
on some pretext or other usually drew them into a 
correspondence with himself. He talked with them 
about themselves, their daily experiences, pleasures, 
troubles, and in each one he seemed to take a per- 



AVITH THE ^'EW YORK Y. M. C. A. Ill 

sonal and particular interest. He rarely spoke of 
himself, and then but to illustrate better his ability 
to enjoy or sympathize. With such qualities, such 
methods, it was not long ere a man began to regard 
him in the light of a dear friend, a confidant, one to 
whom hopes, fears, ambitions, could be related, sure 
of a ready response and sympathy. In this way 
Webster found the heart of many a young man, shy 
and lonely, in a strange city, and liable to go wrong 
unless just such a friendly hand was stretched out 
to help him. 

Throughout all his life, he realized fully that the 
old adage about Satan's ability to find some work 
for idle hands, was more true than poetic. Accord- 
ingly as soon as a young man had confessed Christ, 
Webster was urgent for him to take up some one of 
the many branches of Christian work, open for him 
at the association. In this he was most successful, 
not only in enlisting a new convert, but in putting 
him at that work for which he seemed to be especi- 
ally fitted. Speaking of this, one of the secretaries 
says: " He had a peculiar knack of interesting and 
developing young fellows in active work in the 
association. The remark that a young man recently 
from the country made to me a day or two after 
his (Webster's) death, ' I was no good for work un- 
til Mr. W^ebster took hold of me,' is the testimony 
of many another young man." Lest any of those 
who review the life of Webster should be led to a 
wrong conclusion concerning this characteristic of his 
— this ability to influence young men for good— and 



112 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

should consider it a special gift from Providence, it 

is deemed best to insert at this point the testimony 

of one who knew Webster well in life, and who was 

greatly helped by him. 

****** 

"iMy first meeting with Webster was during the 
summer of 1883 — probably in the month of July — I 
happened to attend one of the Sunday afternoon 
Bible classes. It was my first appearance in the 
rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
The first man to greet me at the close of the study 
was Henry Webster. Curiosity, I suppose, had led 
me into the rooms. I had no definite intention of 
making more than the one visit. It was probably 
his bright and cordial welcome and invitation to 
'Come again' that induced me to attend the meet- 
ing on the following Thursday night. This was the 
commencement of the many happy days I spent in 
the service of the association, first as an active 
member, and a member of the devotional commit- 
tee merely, and subsequently, a few months later, as 
one of the office secretaries. With Webster sitting 
near me, having again warmly welcomed me, I 
greatly enjoyed the Thursday night meeting. It 
was all new and a pleasant experience to me. I 
had never before seen a religious meeting con- 
ducted by any save a clergyman, nor had I ever 
listened to such ready and interesting testimonies 
for Christ, and all by young men! I was filled with 
a new zeal and burned to mingle my voice with the 
voices of the others, in giving testimony and ex- 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 113 

hortation, but had not the courage. I rejoice to say 
that I have since then both witnessed for Christ, 
and conducted many such meetings in the churches 
of the denomination of which I am a member. 

" It was not long before Webster ascertained 
whether I was a Christian. It was not his habit to 
long delay that important query, though he made it 
always cautiously, wisely, and kindly, and I doubt if 
he often failed to get a kind and candid reply. He 
learned that I was entertaining the thought of enter- 
ing the ministry, though I had not yet commenced 
to study. I had never raised my voice in public. 
If my desire was to be realized I must begin some- 
where. Webster thought the young men's meetings 
would be a good starting place, and undertook the 
work of encouraging and starting me. Faithfully 
he sat beside or near me in the meetings, and when 
there would occur a lull, he would nudge me, and 
whisper in my ear, 'Now is your time, Will.' A 
considerable time passed before I could muster 
the courage, until on a Thursday night I promised 
him that I would speak before the meeting ended. 
I kept the promise owing to his constant urging, 
throughout the meeting, and regained my seat, 
scared almost out of half my wits. But the ice was 
broken, I had made a commencement, and for a 
long time afterward I did not fail to speak at every 
meeting. And so began my life work of preaching 
Christ. I may be pardoned for saying so much 
concerning myself, when it is remembered that by 
relating this episode in my own life, I present an 



114 HENRY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

episode in the life of Henry Webster, that was 
many times repeated. As he appeared to me, so he 
appeared to great numbers of young men, who 
could relate similar experiences. We all owe debts 
of gratitude to those who help us over hard places 
in life. I had reached one of those places. Had 
Henry Webster not helped me, perhaps some one 
else would have done so. But it formed a part of 
his service for Christ to do it, and to him therefore 
is my gratitude due. I shall ever cherish his mem- 
ory with warmest affection." 

* * * * * * 

Here we see Webster's methods, simple, clear, 
earnest, and those which any consistent Christian 
can follow in an endeavor to win souls to Christ. 

Another of Webster's methods which gave him, 
perhaps, his greatest hold upon young men, was his 
unaffected interest in all sports and pastimes. To 
the end that he might the better converse on these 
matters, he lost no opportunity to post himself on 
all the athletic sports, with which the country 
teems, during nine months of each year. In con- 
nection with this knowledge he was careful, also, to 
learn all the current phrases and idioms, which were 
the legitimate outgrowth of each distinct sport. 
Thus, when talking with a baseball enthusiast con- 
cerning some one of the games between nines of 
rival colleges, he was able to speak of ''base-hits," 
''errors," "flys," "in and out shoots or curves," with 
the easy confidence of one who knew. It was the 
same with football, boating, yachting, the current 



WITH THE NEW Y<^lilv Y. M. C. A. 115 

phrases of each, so dear to the ear of a true lover of 
the sport, fell from his lips easily, and enabled him 
to hold the interest of the listener, sending him 
away with the belief that Webster "was alive," and 
"in" everything^ that was worth having. It was the 
old story, Webster strove to be "all things to all 
men, that he might win souls to Christ." This de- 
sire of his to learn all about that which interested 
others, so as to be able to talk with them intelli- 
gently, is aptly illustrated by a little incident, re- 
lated by a friend of his, which occurred just prior 
to his (Webster's) death. He says: "One morning 
as we walked down town, we happened to pass a win- 
dow in which hung a picture of one of the scenes in 

the ' '. Neither of us had seen the play. He 

had talked with some one who had and he gave me 
quite an account, closing with the remark: 'I 
don't go to see these things, but lots of fellows do, 
and I want to know what it is they are interested 
in,' and he characteristically added, 'they don't do 
much thinking themselves, and it furnishes them 
with loose change for conversation.'" This same 
friend speaks of another incident in Webster's life, 
which bears upon his use of every day expressions: 
'Webster used current phrases," he says, "for the 
expression of religious truth in a striking way. One 
evening he spoke with a young man, who had just 
come from a meeting led by him, in relation to the 
salvation of his soul. The usual trivial excuse had 
been given, more time for thought, or some other 
day. Webster, standing before the young man with 



116 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

his Bible open in his hand, said: 'Suppose I had a 
wire, running from here up to the throne of God, 
and I should ring the bell and call up, "God, here's 
a young man who says he will think about becom- 
ing a Christian as soon as he has got settled in 
business, and can get time to see to it. What shall 
I tell him?" God would send the answer down the 
w^ire: "Tell him, 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, etc' " This imaginary reply 
from above was made solemnly impressive by be- 
ing read by Webster from the open Bible in his 
hand." Again he relates: "At another time, a 
young man had made a singularly apt quotation in 
the Bible class, and Webster remarked to him after- 
ward — an athlete and baseball lover: 'That verse 
was good. You made a home-run that time.'" 

Perhaps no one in the association realized more 
fully than Webster the need of regular religious in- 
struction for these same athletic young men, so 
many of whom were coming to the rooms. He un- 
derstood their temperament and feelings, and also, 
much of that spirit which made them refuse to be- 
come regular church goers. Full of life and spirits, 
with their veins fairly dancing with an exuberance 
of health, they felt but little sympathy for the serv- 
ice of the church, with its hymns, prayers and ser- 
mon. He saw plainly, therefore, that a religious 
service capable of attracting and finally converting 
them to Christ, must differ radically from all the 
old forms. He gave considerable time and thought 
to this need, and the result of his prayer and medi- 



WITH THE NEW YOEK Y. M. C. A. 117 

tation was the starting of a Sunday afternoon serv- 
ice, for young men only, which he termed the 
"Young Men's Rally." The plan was to hold a serv- 
ice in the hall of the association, each Sunday 
afternoon at 3:30. Speakers were to be asked, prin- 
cipally, from among Christian laymen, men well 
known in business, literary or political life. The 
address was to be on some topic relating chiefly to 
young men, to be founded on a terse text of Script- 
ure, and was not, under any circumstances, to con- 
sume more than half an hour. A short chapter in 
the Bible, a brief prayer, and about twenty minutes 
of good singing, would make the entire service but 
one hour in length. Webster took entire charge of 
this meeting, secured speakers, arranged the topics, 
and saw to it that it was well advertised. From the 
start these meetings were most gratifying and are 
still carried on, and are one of the greatest of the 
association's aids in drawing young men to a relig- 
ious life. In the conduct of these meetings and the 
arrangement of the "topics," and special Sundays, 
he showed rare skill. He had a species of horror 
for that half-alive Christianity, which permits its 
methods to run into a rut, and stay there. That he 
might avoid this, was his special aim, and he was 
constantly on the watch for fresh ideas and new 
thoughts, with which to enliven the meetings and 
attract young men to them. Some of his ideas in 
this connection were unique. On one occasion he 
arranged a series of services for Sunday afternoon, 
which he advertised as "Athletic Sundays." His 



118 HE^'EY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

speakers for this course, some five or six afternoons 

in succession, were Christian young men, prominent 
in athletic circles, as Sunday, the right-fielder of the 
Pittsbura;h. Pa., baseball club; Stao-cr, the colleg"e 
ball-pitcher; several members of the Princeton foot- 
ball team, and so on. It is needless to say that he 
had full houses on these occasions and what is more 
to the point, that many young men were converted. 
As a rule these meetings were most impressive, the 
audience quiet and attentive, and towards the close, 
frequently, deeply affected. The speakers, gener- 
ally young men, different each Sunday, had each 
his own peculiar style of address, his individual 
way of presenting his topic. By this method nearly 
everv class of vouno" men was reached, and in a 
manner well nigh resistless. PVom his seat on the 
platform, next to the speaker. Webster closely 
\\"atched the effect of the remarks on the audience. 
If. in his judgment, a strong impression had been 
made, it was customar}' at the close of the address, 
to call for a few moments of silent prayer. Then. 
\\hen all heads were bowed, a gentle appeal was 
made to all those unconverted to come to Christ. 
To an outsider, and one visiting this meeting for 
the first time, these few minutes were sino"ularlv sol- 
cmn. As the leader, in a quiet, subdued voice, 
asked those to rise for a second in their places, who 
desired to become servants of Christ, one by one 
from all parts of the hall, the \'oung men would 
stand up. and on several occasions the writer has 
counted over a dozen such at a single meetinsf. In 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 119 

connection with these services, Webster had as 
helpers a good committee of Christian young men. 
These same, at the beginning of the meeting, had 
scattered themselves, generally, throughout the 
hall. When the time came, therefore, for the call 
to Christ, as a would-be-Christian rose, he was care- 
fully noted by the nearest worker. The silent 
prayer finished, a hymn was sung, and an invitation 
was extended by him to those who had expressed, 
by rising, a desire to serve Christ, to remain for a few 
minutes after the meeting was dismissed. As the 
gathering passed out of their places, each man who 
had risen in response to the call was approached by 
the worker who noted him, greeted kindly, and by 
him conducted to the small parlor adjoining the re- 
ception room, where the after meeting for new con- 
verts, as it was called, was to be held. In this way, 
almost every young man who had expressed a de- 
sire for a new life was reached at once, while the 
first yearnings for Christ were moving him. Web- 
ster did not believe in taking any chances; the best 
meetings, he used to say, are those which are ''rnosL 
systematically harvested." He felt that to let a 
young man go out and away, after a meeting, and 
without a word of prayer and guidance, without 
having fully committed himself by a confession of 
Christ to some Christian, was to risk his relapsing 
into former careless ways and walks. In this after- 
meeting, among new converts, Webster was, per- 
haps, at his best. It was truly personal work, and 
in this he had great faith, under Christ. Prior to 



120 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

this, mention has been made of his winning manner 
and its power to draw young men to him. Here, in 
conversation with those so recently born into the 
kingdom, he seemed to attract young men in a most 
remarkable manner, and to plant in their hearts a 
strong, lasting attachment. Some time after his 
death there was handed to the writer a letter from 
a young man, who, under the guidance of the Mas- 
ter, and, apparently, while still unconverted, had 
strolled into one of these Sunday afternoon "Young 
Men's Rallies." Webster seems to have met him, 
as he was leaving, and to have invited him to 
come in to the secretary's Bible class, about to be- 
gin its lesson. He accepted the invitation, and in 
his own way, tells the whole story. 

****** 
One Sunday afternoon in the middle of June 1889, 1 
strolled into the Twenty-third St. Branch of the Y. M. 
C. A. and listened to the service, but to this day all 
was a blank to me. I could not think of anything that 
was said or sung; the one thing that absorbed my 
thoughts was the hand that held mine as I passed 
out of the Hall. I cannot recollect the words that 
passed between us, but there was something in that 
hand, and that face, that seemed to speak so much, 
that before I left I felt that I could have risked my 
life for him. I loved him more than any one on Earth, 
even my Mother. I never experienced anything like 
that meeting before, or since. Many times have I en- 
tered that building and longed to grasp his hand; 
he has been engaged and I did not like to intrude. 



WITH THE NEW YORK Y. M. C. A. 121 

I was afraid he might tliink I was making myself 
too friendly, but I know differently now. In the 
1st Epistle of John iii, 14, we are told that we 
know that we have passed from death unto life be^ 
cause we love the brethren. I feel sure that that 
meeting was my conversion. The Lord saved me 
through that hand of our dear departed brother 
.Webster. 

May be it was him that invited me into the 5 
o'clock Bible Class. At any rate I attended it, and 
there I learned my ist Lesson — from Mr. McCon- 
oughy, whom I also love dearly. I shall never for- 
get it, it was the Parable of the Talents. I thought to 
myself have I got any talent to do something for the 
Master, and I soon answered my own question, I can 
give away Invitations, and so I did, from that, I was 
placed on the sick committee, then made Leader and 
the many blessings I have received during my service 
for the Master is wonderfull. How he has lead me 
and is leading me still, and I know he will to the 
end. 

Oh, what the Lord can do with one that loves 
him as our dear Bro. did. Truly Jesus is our 
Teacher, but we can learn many beautifuU and noble 
lessons from our dear Bros. life. 

I need no Photograph of him, I can bring him 
before me in fancy any time, I remember the last 
conversation I had with him after I had given my 
testimony at one of the 6.30 Meetings (Sunday) 
telling how God had blessed me, and quoting 
Romans viii, 28. 



122 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

All things work together for good to those that 
love God. how glad he was. and hoped that some 
one might be impressed by what I said. I had lost 
my Situation on Saturday, was going up the Ele- 
vated Railroad Station at 14th Street, on monday 
morning to go down town to get some Paints, and 
something seemed to say, get the Paper and look at 
the advertisements. I came down the stairs again, 
got the Paper, found something to suit me, and got 
work that day. 

so truly I can sa\' the Lord was with me and ac- 
cording to his promise! believe he will never leave 
me nor forsake me. 

May the blessing that attended our meeting be 
repeated many thousands of times, is the Prayer of 
your Bro in Christ. 

P. S. 

How much there is in a good Brotherly grasp of 
the hand, may the Invitation Committee of Twenty- 
third St. be ever known for its warm and welcome 
reception, and learn from our Bros life, many grand 
and noble examples. 

Ever in the ^Masters service 



- Webster's interest and work in the White Cross 
movement has been ably treated in the following 
chapter, at the request of the writer, by Mr. Mornay 
Williams of New York City, a gentleman closely 
identified with the work from its inception, and an 
intimate friend of Webster's of man}- years standing. 



CHAPTER VJ. 

THE WHITE CROSS MOVEMENT. 

It must be apparent to any one who has read thus 
far the life of Henry Webster, that his interest in 
young men and in all that concerned their welfare 
was so deep and broad as to make him the enthusi- 
astic advocate of any movement which had for its 
object the advancement of their moral and spiritual 
welfare. Nor could it have been long possible for 
one placed as Henry Webster was at the beginning 
of his young manhood in the whirl of the active 
business and social life of New York City to have 
failed to perceive the manifold temptations which 
surround every young man who finds himself a 
stranger without family or home ties in the great 
metropolis. Singularly pure and ardent as was his 
own temperament, Webster was keenly alive to the 
weaknesses of other men, and the temptations 
which were likely to meet them, and was always 
ready himself to give all of influence and effort that 
he might to aid his fellows in resisting temptation. 
It was, therefore, to be expected that when any new 
movement looking toward the formation of a higher 



124 HENKY IIUKACE AVEBSTEK. 

standard of personal purity had come to this coun- 
try, Webster should be found among its early and 
earnest advocates. 

In 1883, in the diocese of Durham, in England, 
there had been inaugurated a movement under the 
guidance of Dr. Lightfoot, then Bishop of Durham, 
and of Miss EUice Hopkins, which at first directed 
to the locality in which it originated, soon spread 
through the entire United Kingdom, and in little 
more than a year was brought across the ocean, and 
found its place among the recognized forces of 
good in our own land. The genesis and the object 
of this movement, which has come to be known as 
the White Cross Army movement, is perhaps as suc- 
cinctly and forcibly stated in the following extract 
from Henry Webster's own pen as it can be: 



The White Cross Army movement aims to pro- 
mote personal purity among men. It was first or- 
ganized in England in 1883 by the Bishop of Dur- 
ham, Rt. Rev. J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., whose deep 
scholarship and earnest spirit have become widely 
known through his Commentaries on the New Test- 
ament. It spread rapidly throughout England, and 
its membership has not been confined to the Estab- 
lished Church nor indeed to any Church. Though 
it is entirely a movement among men, a refined 
Christian woman of high social position. Miss Ellice 
Hopkins, has done more than any one else to pro- 
mote its spread in Great Britain. Much of the lit- 



THE WHITE CROSS MOVEMENT. 125 

erature on the subject is from her pen, and she has 
again and again addressed large audiences of men 
with the utmost delicacy, tact and power. 

In the United States a committee, of which the 
Rev. B. F. DeCosta, D.D..'is secretary, edited during 
1884 five of the tracts of the White Cross series, and 
they are issued under their sanction by Messrs. E. 
P. Button & Co., and sold at the bare cost of publi- 
cation. 



The work thus inaugurated in the United States 
was brought to the attention of a little group of act- 
ive workers in the Twenty-third Street Branch of 
the Young Men's Christian Association early in the 
year 1885, and one Monday evening in February, in 
that year, they met together in the parlors of the 
association to learn from Dr. DeCosta the form in 
which the movement had taken shape in the Epis- 
copal church. Among those who met there, the 
most interested and earnest, perhaps, of all, was 
Henry H. Webster, and in the formation of a com- 
mittee to inaugurate this work as a branch of asso- 
ciation work, it was felt to be the legitimate and al- 
most necessary result of his active interest in the 
movement that Henry Webster should be made the 
chairman of the first White Cross committee of the 
association. Indeed, the rules by which the com- 
mittee was governed were largely of his own fram- 
ing, and, as a guide tor similar efforts in other places, 
no less than as an apt illustration of his own execu- 



126 HENRY HOKACE AVEBSTER. 

tive ability in such matters, the rules, as he drafted 
them, are here incorporated: 

Rules. 

I. The White Cross Army of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of the City of New York shall be composed of all 
young men over sixteen years of age who shall agree to the fol- 
lowing pledge: 

"I promise by the help of God: — 

"I To treat all women with respect, and endeavor to protect 
them from wrong and degradation. 

"2. To endeavor to put down all indecent language and 
coarse jests. 

"3. To maintain the law of purity as equally binding upon 
men and women. 

"4. To use every possible means to fulfil the command, 'Keep 
thyself pure.' 

"5. To endeavor to spread these principles among my com- 
panions, and to try and help my younger brothers." 

II. The object of this army shall be the promotion of purity 
among young men, the elevation of public opinion regarding the 
question of personal purity, and the maintenance of the same 
standard for men and women. 

III. The management of the army shall be entrusted to a 
committee, appointed by the president of the association, the 
chairman of which shall also be designated by him, 

IV. The committee shall elect from its own number a cor- 
responding secretary, a recording secretary, and a treasurer, and 
may also appoint such sub-committees as may be found necessary 
to promote the objects of the army. 

V. The members shall be admitted after being proposed in 
writing by a member of the army, and approved by the commit- 
tee. Every member so admitted on signing his name shall re- 
ceive a copy of the rules and a card of membership. 

VI. The committee shall have full power to suspend or dis- 



THE WHITE CROSS MOVEMENT. 127 

miss from the army any member for reasons which shall appear 
to be sufficient, and to erase his name from the books. 

VII. All expenses shall be defrayed by voluntary contribu- 
tions. 

VIII. Meetings shall be held at such times as shall be deemed 
expedient by the committee, but no business shall be transacted 
at such meetings except such as may be brought before it by the 
committee. 

IX. All meetings held in connection with this army shall be 
opened and closed with devotional exercises. 

X. The committee may alter or amend these rules subject to 
the approval of the board of directors of the association. 

On Monday evening, March 30, 1885, the first 
public meeting of the new movement was held in 
Association Hall. Perhaps the writer of this chap- 
ter may be pardoned if he intrudes a little of per- 
sonal reminiscence in the narrative of the inception 
of this work. It had so happened that he had been 
associated with Henry Webster in the preparations 
for this meeting, and had looked forward to attend- 
ing it himself, not only as an interested on-lookerij 
but as one of the active workers in the new move- 
ment; but, in the providence of God, it was so or- 
dered that just at the time when the preparations 
for the meeting were almost completed, he was 
-called to bear great personal loss in the illness and 
death of his father. Of that illness and its then 
probable termination, Henry Webster had heard, 
and it was an act significant of his warm heart and 
ready thoughtfulness that he should have taken 
time at the close of the meeting, in which his own 
thoughts had been so much engrossed, to write a 



12 S HE^'EY' HUE ACE WEBSTEK. 

short account of it to his friend. He evidently 
wrote just after the meeting was over, when its kin- 
dling enthusiasm was still upon him. "Our success/ 
he says, "was complete tonight. One thousand in 
hall; nearly three hundred signed, and the addresses 
made a deep impression." A few days later he 
wrote again, this time to express his sympathy in 
the bereavement whose shadow had darkened the 
days preceding it; and perhaps it was with some 
thoug"ht of his own earlv loss of his father, and of 
what that father's memory had been to him. that he 
wrote to his friend: "A life so full of useful vears 
is a rare legacy." 

This quality of ready and hearty sympathy which 
is shown in the narrative given, was one of the 
qualities which made Henr\- Webster able to touch 
so manv lives for o-ood. But he was not. like man\- 
men of ready sympathies, unable to hold firmly to 
his own opinions and to maintain them in the face 
of vigorous opposition; and in the work of the 
White Cross Arm\'. he was soon called to assert 
with determination that which he conceived to be 
the duty of Ycang Men's Christian i\ssociations. in 
the new movement. It is. perhaps, the penalty that 
an}' organization must pay for its permanence, that 
it should always have to contend with an ultra con- 
servatism, when any expansion of its work is pro- 
posed, and this penalty had to be paid in the inter- 
est of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
Scarcely had the movement been introduced before 
many active in the counsels of the association, and 



THE WHITE CROSS MOVEMENT. 129 

deservedly esteemed for their work's sake, felt con- 
strained to oppose the new departure, and to make 
their opposition felt in outspoken protest. 

On one occasion, at least, this protest found voice 
in a resolution setting forth the belief of the body 
in session that "it is inadvisable for the associations 
to engage in any organized efforts for moral re- 
form," and, agam, "that they deem it unwise and 
contrary to the well-established principles formu- 
lated for the guidance of our association, to adopt 
the methods of the White Cross Army and similar 
societies." This opposition and kindred protests, 
Henry Websterfound himself at once called to meet; 
but he never swerved from his conviction as to what 
was for him the path of duty, and from his fixed 
determination to do the work which he conceived 
had been laid upon him. Without debate, and yet 
without hesitation, he and those associated with 
him on the White Cross committee formulated and 
carried on their work. 

It is, perhaps, needless to enter at any length 
into the history of that work. In the early days of 
the movement, it was largely a propaganda for the 
dissemination of information and for the inciting of 
interest in the movement in localities where it had 
not yet penetrated. Each month brought new re- 
quests for information as to the work from all 
quarters of the United States, and constant supplies 
of literature had to be forwarded to those desiring 
to form branches of the society. All of this was in 
addition to the regular work of the committee in 



180 HENRY HORACE AVEBSTER. 

the City of New York and in connection with the 
Twenty-third Street Branch of the association. In 
this more limited work, special meetings were ar- 
ranged, and speakers secured; the first Sunday af- 
ternoon in each month came to be regarded as the 
special time for the presentation of the work of the 
committee, and on occasional week nights through- 
out the year, other "rallies," as they were called, of 
the army, were held. Then, as the work extended, 
and as increasing demands were made for new 
pamphlets bearing upon the general subject, the 
White Cross committee, under Henry Webster's 
guidance, undertook the publication of a variety of 
tracts for distribution among young men. Most of 
these publications were done under the immediate 
supervision of Mr. Webster, and not a few of them 
have been found of great usefulness in the work of 
the society as it exists, not only in New York City, 
but throughout the country. And yet Henry Web- 
ster, himself, has been called away without having 
seen the full results of the work that he was thus 
active in founding. The opposition which he was 
called to meet in the early stages of the work has, 
in a large measure, if not entirely, ceased, and in- 
stead of being regarded as an alien, and an undesir- 
able feature in association work, the White Cross 
Army is today enrolled by many associations as 
among the valued agencies for Christian work as it 
affects young men. 

In no form of effort arc statistics less available; 
and if available, less valuable than in just this sort 



THE WHITE CROSS MOVEMEN'J'. 



181 



of effort. It would be idle to attempt to tabulate 
the results of the work which Henry Webster was 
thus active in initiating. Not here can the reckon- 
ing be had. And the verdict on his labor must be 
reserved for another tribunal than that of earth. 
But those who were privileged to be his associates 
in the years in which he did his work for young 
men in New York City have come to feel that in no 
small degree the beautiful eulogy which Walter 
Savage Landor passed upon his friend, Robert 
Southey, was true of Henry Webster: — 



No firmer breast than thine hath heaven 

To poet, sags, or hero given; 

No heart more tender, none more just 

To that He largely placed in trust: 

Therefore shalt thou, whatever date 

Of years be thine, with soul elate, 

Rise up before the eternal throne, 

And hear, in God's own voice, " Well done." 



CHAPTER VII. 



SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



It was not long after Webster's second appearance 
in New York association work, ere his ability as a 
leader of young men became apparent to the di- 
rectors of the institution. He was elected a direc- 
tor of the association, and remained as such until 
the reorganization of the work, on a different basis, 
early in 1887. ^^ this reorganization, which made 
the old board of directors general supervisors, only, 
of a various number of committees of management, 
to whose immediate care the different buildings, in 
which the work was carried on, was intrusted, Web- 
ster became a member of the committee having the 
oversight and guidance of the building formerly 
known as the mother institution, but which was 
then made the Twenty-third Street Branch. He 
was elected by his associates in the management to 
the position of vice-chairman, and also that of 
chairman of the executive committee, the chief 
working body of the branch. To the duties here 
laid upon him, he brought to bear that care and 
earnestness so characteristic of the man in his man- 



SPECIAL CHAKA.CTEKISTICS. 133 

agement of all matters intrusted to his charge. He 
was punctual in his attendance on the weekly meet- 
ings of the committee, for the transaction of routine 
business, and wasted considerable valuable time in 
waiting for others who frequently came late. Of 
the actual work of this committee, needing care, 
management and thought outside the walls of the 
institution, he took upon himself a large share, and 
his hand and brain were frequently at work, shaping 
the course of some movement tending to help the 
association, long after his associates had left the 
committee. Beyond this duty as a manager of the 
branch, he occupied himself in guiding and helping 
the various sub- committees, those made up of 
members of the association. Thus, he frequently 
led the Thursday or Saturday evening prayer meet- 
ings, presided at the members' monthly meeting, or 
acted as chairman of a meeting called for some 
special purpose. In his character of presiding of- 
ficer at all of these gatherings, he was, perhaps, at 
his best. At the Sunday afternoon " Young Men's 
Rally," of which he had full control, he often seemed 
inspired, for at such times he appeared to be capa- 
ble of lifting his audience up to his own standpoint. 
He presided at all of these meetings — his absence 
being so rare as to permit the word all. His man- 
ner was entirely free from all affectation or self- 
consciousness. He rarely made the address, and 
then only under stress of circumstances, owing to 
the absence of the speaker advertised. In relation 
to this one of his friends says: "How few men 



134 HENiJY HORACE WEBSTER. 

could have resisted the opportunity to magnify 
themselves, either by frequently attempting to 
speak, and thus to wield an influence they imagined 
themselves, with a greater or less degree of truth, to 
possess, or by a more or less ostentatious bearing, 
to secure a sort of admiration or respect, dear to so 
many, many of mankind, when before an audience. 
But no one was conscious of an intrusion of person- 
ality when Henry Webster presided. He was dig- 
nified, manly, possessed of tact, but there was a total 
lack of ostentation or affectation, which could have 
resulted from no other cause than an entire forget- 
fulness of himself." Another meeting which he 
conducted with equal if not superior success, was 
that held each night, during the week of prayer for 
young men in November of each year. A friend 
says of these meetings: "Mr. Webster assumed 
the leadership of the whole course of meetings dur- 
ing the week of prayer for young men. Every 
evening he was at his post, leading with tact and 
mildness, but intense power. And after the close 
of the meeting, he was always ready to talk with 
inquirers, seeming to have an inexhaustible in- 
genuity and patience." Another says: "1 have 
known Henry Webster to talk with an inquirer after 
a meeting, for four hours on a stretch." Speaking 
of these meetings, one says: "His constant en- 
deavor was to avoid all excitement and to have men 
decide the question of their destiny with all their 
senses about them. He spoke in a calm, conversa- 
tional manner. There was on everv occasion an en- 



SPECIAL CHAEACTEKISTIGS. 135 

tire lack of affectation. The question of eternity 
was to him, and seemed to his audience, the most 
practical question of existence. The room was 
always filled to overflowing, but there was never 
any confusion. He had great tact, self-possession. 
The interest was breathless. How distinctly, as I 
write, do I recall his calm face and erect figure as he 
talked in his plain, practical way to the hushed au- 
dience." 

This power as a leader of young men's meetings 
in Henry Webster was due, mainly, to two things — 
careful preparation beforehand and a perfect famil- 
iarity with the Bible. His conscientiousness in 
making himself ready for every meeting he at- 
tended was phenomenal. There was no exception 
to this rule; and no matter how small or apparently 
trivial the reason for a meeting might be, he fol- 
lowed the same course and came fully prepared to 
take part, expressing his views clearly, cogently, 
and to the point. Speaking of this carefulness, and 
the desire always to be ready, one of his friends 
says: " I remember having heard him once say that 
during. his four years of college life he had never 
been late in chapel a single time; and this prompt- 
ness and punctuality was a marked feature of all his 
after life. And not only was he always punctual in 
all his engagements, but he was faithful in the per- 
formance of every duty. Whatever work lay before 
him, was the work the Master had given him to do, 
and he did not shirk it. He did not, for instance, 
come without preparation to a committee meeting. 



136 



HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 



as is the rule with busy men. If he led a meeting" 
or took part in one, there was also the same evi- 
dence of careful preparation. He was systematic- 
ally faithful in attendance wherever he had engaged 
himself. Thorough conscientiousness marked every 
action." 

His familiarity with his Bible and ability to quote 
with ease was one of his best helps. He was a de- 
vout student of the Word, and from boyhood had 
made it his constant companion. On this point his 
family express themselves thus: " He devoted much 
of his time to a thorough, careful study of God's 
Word, which was always very precious to him. His 
friends will remember his familiarity with the Bible 
and the ease with which he could turn to the pas- 
sage he wanted. The Bible always lay open on a 
table in his room, so that as he moved about he 
might glance at it and fix some precious truth in his 
memory." 

One of Henry Webster's most prominent charac- 
teristics was his perfect self-control. Under cir- 
cumstances the most trying, he never lost his 
temper or gave way to harsh criticism. In connec- 
tion with this point an old friend and fellow-worker 
says: "I was associated with him in the Sunday 
afternoon meeting, in Association Hall, from its 
beginning, and had abundant opportunity to ob- 
serve his calmness, patience, self-control, whatever 
we may choose to call it — in the face of countless 
annoyances. When, for instance, prominent men 
advertised to speak were late, as they not infre- 



SPECIAL CHAEACTEElSTICt?. 



13 



quently were, and the time for the meeting to begin 
was fast approaching, and even passing, and an au- 
dience of sometimes many hundreds were waiting, 
and he, the master of ceremonies, and not yet 
before the audience, there was never an exclamation 
of impatience or annoyance. This, as I look back 
upon it, and at the same time remember our very 
human nature, seems to me no less than wonderful. 
He was not only master of the situation, but master 
of himself." 

Perhaps it was this same perfect self-control which 
made him such a favorite and so successful with the 
boys. It is said that no man can attract the "gen- 
eral boy" unless he is a perfect master of self. 
However true this may be, it was certainly a fact 
with Henry Webster, for every boy he met seemed 
to be drawn insensibly to him. We have seen this 
to be the case back in his schooldays; then, again, 
in his native town; and it was repeated once more 
in his association work in New York City. This at- 
traction was largely due, undoubtedly, to Webster's 
love for boys, and it was the moving cause, which 
culminated finally in the formation of the Boys' 
Department, in the Twenty-third Street association 
building. As we have seen, in his efforts to help 
the boys of the railroad men of Mauch Chunk, he 
recognized in them the future men of the day and 
realized the importance of giving them a good start 
toward right and truth. In the association at New 
York, he found a much larger field for such work. 
He recognized the opportimity possessed by the 



138 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

association, of gathering the boys, who occasionally 
ventured to come to the rooms, into a section by 
themselves, an embryonic association, from which 
in the process of time they could be drafted into 
the greater body. By this means, he saw, a whole- 
some moral influence could be thrown around a 
number of boys, and a thorough grounding in 
Christian principles be given them. Space forbids 
a detailed account of the formation and growth of 
the Boys' Department of the Twenty- third Street 
association, under the fostering care of Henry H. 
Webster. Suffice it to say, that his efforts finally 
procured for the boys a room, nicely fitted up, fur- 
nished with books, papers, and games, where, under 
his care and the help of one of the secretaries, es- 
pecially detailed for the purpose, the boys could 
spend certain hours of the afternoon and evening. 
From this small beginning of half a score of boys 
and one room, there has grown up a strong and 
well equipped department, distinct from the main 
body, and yet dependent upon it, and from whose 
ranks are annually recruited strong young workers 
for both church and association. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



CLOSING DAYS. 



During the Christmas holidays of 1890, Webster 
was foremost in everything pertaining to the ar- 
rangement for the coming ''open house," on New 
Year's day at the Twenty-third Street Branch. Es- 
pecially was he active in the preparation for this 
the greatest reception day of the year for the 
branch, owing to the fact that following an unvary- 
ing custom, he expected to be absent, spending 
New Year's day with his mother and relations at 
the family home in Mauch Chunk. The account of 
this his last holiday on earth, is so well given by 
one of his sisters, that it is inserted here, in full: 



" Henry spent every holiday at home and he was 
with us on New Year's day, 1891. There was a 
large family gathering that day of children and 
grandchildren, and no one was so bright and happy 
as Henry. As we gathered for family worship in 
the morning he said in his own sweet way, 'I have 



140 BE^^KY HOKACE WEBSTER. 

a good hymn for today. I chose it in New York. 
And then he led in singing: 

Dear Savior! we are thine 

By everlasting bands! 
Our names, our hearts, we would resign; 

Our souls into thy hands. 



* 



Since Christ and we are one. 

Why should we doubt and fear? 
If He in heaven hath fixed his throne, 

He'll fix his members there. 

"We had a long, quiet talk together in the after- 
noon and he told me of many of his plans, and ex- 
pressed once more his thankfulness for the blessing 
of a happy Christian home and for the strong family 
love that bound us so closely to each other. 

" In the evening we were at a reception in the 
Young Men's Christian Association rooms. As I 
saw Henry moving about and talking to everyone 
in his sweet, gracious way, I was more than ever be- 
fore struck with the purity and beauty of his face. 
Others have told me since that they were almost 
awed by the heavenly brightness of his counte- 
nance. 

"The next morning he left us. We had an early 
breakfast, and Henry said there was time for a word 
of prayer together before he went to the train. We 
knelt down, and once more, very lovingly, he com-- 
mended us all to God's care. He went aw^ay prom- 
ising to come back soon. Only two wrecks later 



CLOSING DAYS. 141 

they brought him to us, but, oh, how different from 
the anticipated home-coming!" 



Returning to the city on the day following, Janu- 
ary 2, he entered into the association work with re- 
doubled zeal. With a single exception, perhaps, 
this month is the busiest in the branch, of the entire 
year, for during its course there occurs the anni- 
versary of the branch and the laborious time, inci- 
dental to the closing of the work of one year and 
the taking up of another. Then, too, there is the 
supervision of the working committees of the 
branch, in several of which Webster was especially 
interested. 

During January these committees usually en- 
deavor to start afresh, new lines are mapped out, 
new methods are devised in every legitimate way 
known. An endeavor is made to strengthen the 
committees and to make their work more effective 
for the coming year. In none of these work- 
ing committees was Webster more interested than 
in that of the White Cross, and as soon as he re- 
turned from his New Year's visit to his home, he 
began arrangements for its next meeting to be held 
January 8. As far as we are able to tell, he arose on 
the morning of this day, Thursday, feeling anything 
but well. He spent less than his usual time, in the 
morning, at the association rooms, confining himself 
as far as possible to the final arrangements for the 
meeting to be held that night. He then went down to 



142 HENRY HORACE WEBSTEK. 

his place of business and began the regular routine 
of duties. As the day wore on he grew more and 
more ill, and by 4 or 5 o'clock decided that it 
would be unwise for him to attend the meeting of the 
White Cross committee, for which he had been so 
carefully preparing. Accordingly, he telephoned 
this disappointing fact to the secretary, Mr. James 
McConaughy, and soon after, closing his desk, left 
for his boarding house. Upon reaching his room he 
felt uncomfortable, chilly, and somewhat weak. 
This unpleasant condition continuing, shortly after 
he crawled into his bed, not waiting even to remove 
his clothing. All through that long night he suf- 
fered intense pain, and the coming of the morning 
light found him dangeroush' ill. Speaking of these, 
his last days upon earth, a member of his family re- 
lates: " It was the first time he had ever been sick, 
the first day he ever spent in bed, but with his usual 
good sense he laid aside all thought of his business 
or his work and did everything that the doctors and 
nurse told him would aid in his recovery. During 
those days of sharp, terrible pain, and agonizing 
struggle for breath, not one word or gesture of im- 
patience ever escaped him. In the short intervals 
of relief from the sharpest pain, although he was 
too weak and exhausted to speak, he remained 
calm and composed, with a sweet, peaceful expres- 
sion on his face. 

"All that medical skill, good nursing, and loving 
care could do for him, was done. ' Prayer was made 
uithout ceasing for him,' in the churches, in the 



CLOSING DAYS. 143 

daily meetings, in the association rooms, and in 
many homes where he was known and loved. Lit- 
tle children knelt and asked God to 'make Mr. 
Webster well.' But the dreadful disease, pleuro- 
pneumonia, was never arrested one moment in its 
course, and it was evident to all that he could not 
resist it much longer, that the end was drawing 
near. 

"The doctors' commands were positive that he 
must not be agitated, that everything depended on 
keeping him quiet, so his family dared not talk to 
him about the things that filled their minds. On 
the last day his brother told him that the doctors 
though' that the chances were all against his recov- 
ery. After a moment Henry answered calmly: 'It 
is all right, I have no fear, I am accepted in Christ.' 
His brother repeated the Twenty-third Psalm and 
Henry said: 'I went all over that several nights 
ago.' As he grew worse so rapidly he was delirious 
for several hours and when the delirium passed 
away he was too weak to say a word. We think he 
knew who was with him, that he was conscious that 
his mother sat beside him and held his hand and 
that his brothers and sister were near his bed. 
While his brother Richard was praying, he turned 
his face to him with the sweetest, most confiding 
look, and in a few moments he was gone. (It was 
early on Saturday morning, January 17, 1891.) His 
mother says that Henry's face was so bright and 
peaceful and heaven seemed so near that she could 
almost hear the Master's words of welcome: 'Well 



144 HENRY HORACE AVEBSTER. 

done, good and faithful servant,' as her youngest 
boy entered into the joy of his Lord." 

Sunset and evening star 

And one clear call for me, 
And may there be no moaning of the bar 

When I put out to sea; 
But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam — 
When that which drew from oui the boundless deep, 

Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell — 

And after that the dark — 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 
For tho' from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to meet ray Pilot face to face, 

When I have crossed the bar. 



CHAPTER IX. 



AFTER THOUGHTS. 



The intelligence of the death of Henry H. Web- 
ster spread rapidly, and was everywhere received 
with expressions of profound regret. At the 
Twenty-third Street association, the State and In- 
ternational Committees of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian 
Church, in which he had been very active, and 
among his many friends, there was but one senti- 
ment expressed, and that was, that in the death of 
Henry Webster they had suffered an almost irre- 
parable loss. In his native town, Mauch Chunk, 
the whole community joined in an expression of 
sorrow, and the event took on the nature of a gen- 
eral bereavement. All creeds and nationalities 
joined hands at this period, and vied with each 
other in doing honor to the memory of the de- 
ceased. The St. Aloysius Total Abstinence Society, 
composed of the young men of the Roman Catholic 
Church, on hearing of the death of " Our beloved 
and highly respected citizen, Henry Horace Web- 
ster," passed a resolution expressing their sorrow at 



140 HEXKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

the loss of "one who during life proved himself to 
be a faithful adherent to our holy cause; one who 
was untiring in his zeal, and unselfish in his great 
devotion to the practices of morality; he won for 
himself by his genial disposition, true humanity, 
benevolence and virtue, the respect and confidence 
of our members, thereby leaving a memory which 
will be fondly cherished as an example worthy of 
imitation." A Chinaman, who is still a heathen, 
and who had known Webster, said of him: " He 
was too good to live. * * * He loved God and 
Jesus Christ. He prayed for the railroad men, and 
prayed for everybody. He loved everybody and 
everybody loved him." 

Quickly following his death, obituary notices ap- 
peared in the New York Times, Baltimore American, 
Coal Trades Journal, Mauch Chunk Times, all speak- 
ing of him in the highest terms and deploring that 
a life so eminently useful, so grand in its aims and 
purposes, should be thus soon cut off. 

On the evening of the day of his death, Webster's 
body was taken to his mother's home, at Mauch 
Chunk, and on the Tuesday succeeding, funeral 
services were held in the church founded by his 
father, and the one whose welfare had always been 
so dear to him, when in life. "There was a large 
attendance of relatives and friends from a distance," 
says the Mauch Chunk Coal Gazette, "while the peo- 
ple of the town, who had known and loved the 
lamented dead, since his earliest childhood, turned 
out in ereat numbers. * * * Xhe casket con- 



AFTEJi 'rilorGilTS. 



14:7 



taining the remains was borne to the vestibule of 
the church, and deposited near the tablet erected to 
the memory of the father of the deceased, who was 
the founder of the church. The bearers took their 
places and acted as a guard of honor. The large 
concourse of people were now given an opportunity 
to gaze for the last time upon the face of one 
whom they loved during his life and honored when 
death claimed him. * * * The church was 
crowded with people of all denominations and the 
solemn service impressed everyone. Rev. Dr. Ed- 
sall Ferrier of Easton, Pa., former pastor of the 
church, opened the services by reading an appropri- 
ate selection. from the Scriptures. * * * Prayer 
was next offered, a hymn sung and then an address, 
filled with words of eulogy, was delivered by Dr. Fer- 
rier, who referred to the deceased as a son. * * * 
At the conclusion of the address the Young Men's 
Christian Association sang a hymn, after which Dr. 
Ferrier pronounced the benediction. The large 
concourse then sorrowfully wended its way to 
Mauch Chunk cemetery, where all that was mortal 
of this good Christian was consigned to mother 
earth. The services at the grave were conducted 
^by Revs. Ferrier and Stevenson, and were solemn 
and impressive. After the benediction had been 
pronounced, the obsequies were ended." 

Following the funeral services on Sunday, Febru- 
ary I, a memorial meeting was held in St. Paul's M. 
E. chapel, in Upper Mauch Chunk, the special 
feature of which was the address of the Rev. Dr. 



14:8 HENRY HOEACE WEBSTER. 

Edsall Ferrier. During the course of his remarks, 
the Doctor said: 

"There are certain truths that make us as we are; 
they may be called predominant. We may be con- 
scious or unconscious of them. And in listening to 
these testimonies this afternoon I asked myself the 
question: What are the simple truths that influenced 
the life of our dear brother? I was intimately 
acquainted with Henry Webster, and he had this 
opinion: Unbounded possibilities of usefulness on 
the part of every one. If he knew a man he could 
find out his particular way of doing good. To you 
or me the field might look as barren as a Sahara, 
but to him it was always full of opportunities for 
doing good work. Why, friends, opportunities 
worth more than gold are scattered all around us, 
and we do not take advantage of them. Let me 
ask you all, have you done what you can for the 
Lord Jesus Christ? 

"Henry Webster always recognized the worth of a 
man. It mattered not whether it was a confirmed 
sot; it was a human being and was something worth 
saving. He never went into a railroad car without 
wondering if every person there had a hope of 
heaven. There are thousands today in New York 
to give the same testimony that you have given this 
afternoon in regard to him. 

"I remember a meeting held in the hose room on 
Sunday afternoon, where, at the request of Henry, 
twenty men arose for prayers, and out of this twenty, 
seventeen joined the INIethodist church.* 



AFTER THOUGHTS. 149 

"He believed salvation took in everybody. He 
was once asked, in the hose room, by a friend, if he 
thought God loved a certain man who was known 
to be very wicked, and he replied: *God so loved 
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life.' 

"Henry always worked for immediate results. 
He would often go up to a man, in this room, and 
say: 'Do you wish to become a Christian?' In all 
probability the man would try to put him off with 
some excuse, but Henry would plead with him un- 
til the man confessed that he did want to become a 
Christian. 'Well, now,' Henry 'would say, 'You 
have told me all. Just get down on your knees and 
tell the Lord what you have told me.' And before 
long he would have the man on his knees. 

"I was walking one day with Henry through 
Upper Mauch Chunk, when we saw an old man 
approaching, and Henry said, 'I will speak to this 
man and see if he is a Christian.' Had I been 
alone I would never have thought of speaking to 
the man. But with Henry it was drfferent. He 
approached the old man in a friendly way and after 
some conversation, said: 'My friend, are you a 
Christian?' 'No.' 'Don't you think it about time 
you gave your heart to Christ?' The old man 
looked down and said: ' No, not yet.' And we went 
on sorrowfully. We never heard whether that man 
gave his heart to Christ or not. I suppose there are 
a great many here today who will keep on saying, 



150 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

until they go down to the grave, ' Not yet, not \-et.' " 
Prior to this meeting in Upper Mauch Chunk, a 
memorial service was held in Association Hall, 
New York City, on Sunday afternoon, January 25. 
At this hour, 3:30. the Young Men's Rally, inaugu- 
rated and carefully watched and tended by Henry 
Webster, was wont to be held. What more fitting 
therefor than that this meeting should take to itself 
the nature of a service in memory of him who la- 
bored so long and earnestly for its welfare. Long- 
before the hour set for the opening of the service, 
the hall began to be filled, and when the chairman, 
President Cleveland H. Dodge, arose, every seat 
was taken and the large hall, holding 1,350, was 
packed to the doors. In the course of the short 
speech with which he opened the meeting, President 
Dodge said: * * * " He lived, indeed, a life 
without guile — the most modest of men, the most 
unassuming, the most quiet; and yet with all that, 
he was burning with such a love for God, that his 
influence over young men was well nigh irresistible. 
* * * And this old hall, here, the walls of 
these galleries, if they could speak, could tell you, 
who have not been the regular attendants here, the 
part of work that Webster did. For the past ten 
years he came into contact with more young men, 
and influenced them toward a higher life more than 
any other man I know." 

Mr. William E. Dodge said of Webster: * * * 
"His life crowded into the few years of it more 
Christ-likeness than has been found in many lives 



AFTER THOUGHTS. 151 

that have been long continued. And there is some- 
thing very sweet in thinking of his going to the new 
life, with all that strong, robust manliness which 
characterized him. We do not know the full nature 
of that future life, but we may cherish the hope 
that going as he has gone, in all the vigor of man- 
hood, and all the sweetness of service, he must be 
more ready for higher experience there. * * * 
There are a great many of us who hope we love 
Christ, and believe that we are servants of the Lord, 
but there is a higher plane than that, and He, Him- 
self, has spoken to us about it, ' I call ye not serv- 
ants but friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do what- 
soever I command you.' And Webster was em- 
phatically a friend of Christ, in close walk and fel- 
lowship with Him, receiving from Him inspiration 
and help; and as is always the case he grew like his 
Friend." 

Mr. Richard C. Morse, speaking for the Interna- 
tional Committee, of which Webster was a member, 
told of a visit he had made with him to Northfield, 
Mass., during the summer of 1890. "As was natural, 
we often asked him to go to the State and Interna- 
tional Convention, but he was reluctant to go, ques- 
tioning, altogether too modestly, his power to con- 
tribute to the usefulness of these meetings. But he 
was persuaded last summer to visit Northfield, 
Mass., and attend the College Students' Summer 
School for study of the Bible and Christian work. 
Over five hundred students came together from 
various associations. There was a group of dele- 



152 HENKY HORACE WEBSTER. 

gates from Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glas- 
gow, Dublin, Berlin and Paris. There was another 
interesting group of over twenty Japanese students 
from our American colleges, besides hundreds of stu- 
dents from all parts of this land and from many other 
countries. Every evening a meeting was held in 
the open air on a round hilltop, as the sun was set- 
ting. One day we asked Henry to speak to that 
meeting, and I like to think of him as he stood 
there that evening. There was not anything so 
very eloquent in what he said, but there was the 
sympathy with men and boys, and college boys, 
that was ever going out from him — the same spirit 
as his Master; and as I saw his form against the 
reddening sky, and those boys all about him, it 
seemed to me that he was then almost ready to go 
up higher; and since he has gone he has come back 
to me over and over again, standing there among 
the college boys, and somehow I think that might 
have been the beginning of the benediction and 
embrace with which he was finally caught up into 
the love and fellowship, the joy and sympathy, of 
Him, whom not having seen, he loved, and in whom 
believing he rejoiced, with that joy that was ever on 
his face, and that came from his face and heart into 
our countenances and lives." 

Other speakers followed, and then. after a hymn, 
the great meeting dispersed. 

About the time of this meeting a number of sym- 
pathetic letters were received both by the family of 
Henry Webster, and the association. From among 



AFTER THOUOHTS. 153 

these kindly expressions, the following have been 
taken: 

yp rfS ^V ^^ ^T* ^^ 

'* I feel as though I had lost a brother out of my 
own family," writes Mr. Ira D. Sankey. "What a 
loss to the association! and who can take his place? 
In all my wide acquaintance with Christian young 
men, none stood higher in my estimation than 
Henry H. Webster, nor do I know of one who, in 
my judgment, was better prepared to go and render 
an account of his stewardship. I shall never forget 
the last meeting in the parlor. Another soldier has 
fallen at the post — another leader gone — what shall 
we do? I hear a voice that seems to come from 
above, saying, 'Onward, onward — this man gave his 
life for the young men of New York City, and for 
the young men of his country: close up the ranks — 
his death will be worth a thousand men to the cause 
of Christ this year. Forward! Forward!' The voice 
is true, and shall not each member of the association 
in New York, and of the associations throughout 
the country, reconsecrate his life to the work of 
winning young men to Christ. 'The workers die, 
but the work goes on.' With deepest sympathy." 



Another writes: — 

* * * * * * 

'' I have often quoted your family as a marked in- 
stance of God's love to his covenant people. 

"Richard Webster, after twenty-one years of 



154 HKNRY HOEACE WEBSTER. 

earnest, intelligent and devoted service in his 
Master's vineyard, was called to his gracious reward, 
leaving to you, under God, the responsibility of 
training up seven children for a life of usefulness in 
the world. 

" How thankful you must be for your family of 
sons and daughters. All of your sons educated, 
cultivated, Christian men, and active workers in the 
Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I 
remember speaking to Henry on the subject of per- 
sonal religion when he was about fifteen years of 
age, all of his older brothers being at that time pro- 
fessed Christians. 

**The everlasting covenant between the Father 
and the Son, in which your family were included, 
and to which your husband and yourself had given 
your adhesion in consecrating ail your children to 
Him, left none out; and Henry also consecrated 
himself to Christ and became an earnest and suc- 
cessful worker for his divine Lord. 

"Then why was he taken away from a field of 
usefulness in which he was so earnestly engaged? 
The Lord had need of him. He has a right to do 
as He will with his own. 

"We could not understand why Henry's father in 
the prime of his manhood and the height of his use- 
fulness, should have been called away. Here we 
see through a glass darkly. We must wait for a 
vision of the throne to understand what we know 
not now. 

"This note may reach you while the rest of your 



AFTER THOUGHTS. 155 

family are still about you. Mrs. and our 

family join me in kindest Christian sympathies to 
you all. Yours in our Lord, 



Again there come tender words of sympathy to 
the sorrowing ones at Mauch Chunk: 



"Ever since this trial came to vou and vours, I 
have been wanting to write to you, but somehow I 
felt that I could not comfort you, and I would not 
write merely for form. But tonight I feel that God 
is so wonderfully comforting and sustaining you, 
that while my heart aches with you, and for you, 1 
can also sympathize with you in God's great good- 
ness to you, in all your children, but especially in 
the gift of such a son as Henry, and for loaning him 
to you for thirty-seven years, for giving you the 
great comfort of his dutiful, tender love so long, for 
all he was to you, to his sisters, and brothers, and 
for the blessed knowledge that his whole life was 
one living, consecrated service to his Master, and 
tender solicitude for the souls of his fellow-men. 
In your loneliness, think of the * Well done, good 
and faithful servant' from his Master, and of 'the 
joy of his Lord ' that he shares, of the blessed 
reward that is his, of the redeemed souls already 
there to greet him, as the one who led them to 
Jesus, and the many, many more who will be stars 



15(5 HENEY HORACE WEBSTER. 

in his crown. Surely as 'one whom a mother com- 
forteth' so the Lord is comforting you. I know 
that the ' Everlasting arms are underneath you.' 
That He who was with you in six troubles, did not 
desert you in the seventh. 

"When Anna told me the history that Dr. Ferrier 
gave of Henry, both from his own personal knowl- 
edge, and that of others, I wanted to thank God for 
a Henry Webster. And while I can't fathom the 
mystery that one, so pre-eminently useful, who 
seemed so much needed, should be taken in the 
midst of work, I realize that they ' live longest who 
live best,' and surely in that sense his was a long 
life. He has only been promoted to a higher, 
nobler work for the Master. 

"For you, dear friend, the separation will be short, 
and then the glad reunion with him and his sainted 
father, is near. What a joyful meeting that was for 
them. I may be singular in this, but I love to 
think of the meeting between my father and 
mother, and of theirs with Mr. Webster, and for so 
manv dear friends whose bond of union was their 
common love and work for Jesus. 

"And yet my dear Mrs. Webster, Martha, Maggie 
and Lizzie, my heart goes out to you in tender sym- 
pathy in your terrible loneliness, your daily increas- 
ing sense of loss, as you realize more and more that- 
he is really gone from your loving care, and that 
you can no longer rest in his. And I pray God to 
comfort each one of you, as He alone can. Please 
consider this written to each one. I hope Lizzie 



AFTER THOUGHTS. 157 

will accept my grateful thanks for her thoughtful 

remembrance of us in her own bitter sorrow. 

** It was a great grief to me that I could not come 

up, but you understand why. 

Ever your loving friend, 

* * * " 



While these testimonials and letters show how 
highly Webster was esteemed by his friends, how 
greatly they admired and praised his grand work, 
yet the record of his life would be incomplete 
without a word or two from '* his boys;" the young 
fellows to whom his great heart went out, in such 
love and sympathy; and who, with him, had helped 
to form and carry on the Boys' Department of the 
Twenty-third Street Branch. At a meeting, shortly 
after his death, many of these boys were present 
and quite a number of them spoke, briefly but pow- 
erfully, of the help Henry Webster had given them 
in coming to Christ. Said one, in closing, quoting 
Webster's own words: "John, you do not know 
the joy of a life lived for Jesus, until you have 
sunken your whole life in it as I have done. To 
live a life for Jesus is the best life." Another said: 
"The life of Jesus spoke in all his actions, in 
the hearty words, the warm hand-shake. 1 pray 
God that He will make more men like Henry Web- 
ster." "Although Mr. Webster is dead." said one, 
"yet he speaks, and he spoke very strongly through 
the influence of that meeting, this afternoon. [In 



158 HENRY HORACE WEBSTER. 

the hall, 3:30.] It struck me what a noble thing it 
was to so live that when we go, we shall be missed 
and our influence live after us; and I decided there 
and then that I would try to live so that when m\' 
time is finished on earth, I should be so missed." 
Another said: "One of Mr. Webster's sayings has 
done a great deal to help me in the matter of daily 
communion with God, and the habit of daily read- 
ing of his Word. It was this: 'There are a great 
many young men who lead Christian lives, who 
spend more time in the blacking of their shoes than 
they do in praying and reading his Word.' " *' I re- 
member his face so well, in the prayer meeting," 
declared another, *' I just happened to lean over and 
look at his face. He was in prayer and as I saw his 
expression I thought what a good, what a pure man 
you are. Would to God I could be a man like 
that." 

And so could it be continued, so could testimony 
be multiplied to the grand, pure, helpful, unselfish 
life led by Henry H. Webster; but space fails and 
our little story of his life must come to a close. As 
we leave the contemplation of the earthly life of 
this Christian young man, what more fitting ending 
can we have than a word from him regarding his 
conception of our existence here, and the coming of 
the final summ^ons. It is peculiarly apt, spoken as 
it is by the lips of one who, as men regard it, was 
taken away in the midst of his usefulness and with 
great possibilities for good before him. During a 
conversation one day, held with his friend, William 



AFTEK THoL'CtHTS. 



159 



Russell Collins, now an Episcopalian clergyman, 
settled at Philadelphia, Pa., Webster said: "I do 
not like to see the broken shaft in the cemeter}-. 
It teaches a false doctrine. Our lives are not cut 
off in the bud, nor in the middle. When the death 
summons comes, life is finished, whether or not its 
opportunities have been improved; for were the 
days prolonged the same opportunities would not 
return. At the end of life man has had every op- 
portunity God ever intended him to have, whether 
the end occur at thirty or at eighty years." 




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